The Strange Thing About Family
by xxIAmTheSkyxx
Summary: It's easy to forget that drama can happen just as easily outside a romantic relationship as within one. Crossover AU, rated T for language and sensitive subjects. Updated weekly.
1. Chapter 1

**Part One: Lucy**

**Chapter 1**

"Man, I'm so jealous of you."

"…Sorry, what?"

Kairi turned to me, her eyes glittering with ambivalence. "C'mon, try to pay attention when I say something, Lucy," she whined. "I'm not that boring, am I?"

I blushed in embarrassment. "N-no, of course not. Sorry; I was just…preoccupied, you know?"

Kairi was one of my friends from school. But since we were now out for the summer, most of my other friends were on vacation, and we were the only ones left in town.

Well…us and our boyfriends, actually. As luck would have it, they had nowhere to go for the summer, either. Since we had nothing better to do, we decided to hang out at the local park. Kairi and I were resting in the shade, waiting for the guys to come back with ice cream. I'd been busy staring at the leaves of the tree that were hanging above us and dancing in the breeze when she interrupted me.

"Preoccupied with what? There's nothing fun to do right now; it's too hot." Kairi flopped against the trunk of the tree, irritably blowing stray hair out of her face. "Anyway, like I was saying earlier—I'm jealous of you."

I blinked in surprise. "You're…jealous of me?" I asked incredulously. "Why?"

"_Because_, you managed to hook up with possibly the best boyfriend ever!" She sat up straighter and looked at me indignantly. "You have no idea how lucky you are."

I was utterly confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Let me just tell you that it's way less awkward when you're not going out with a childhood friend," she clarified with a huff, crossing her legs. "I mean, don't get me wrong; it's not like I hate Sora or anything—but I could really do without the constant babying. He always treats me like I'm some kid who can't take care of herself." She sighed wistfully. "I like that; I just wish he would let me take a couple of risks here and there. I'm not made of glass."

I stifled a giggle. "You know, he has good reason to be overprotective," I said. "I won't lie; you can be kind of a reckless ditz sometimes."

"Gee, thanks for being such a good friend." She stretched before turning back to me. "Seriously, though; you're really lucky. You managed to snag a guy you don't know—_and_ he's not even from our school! How'd you do it? You just showed up with him out of nowhere several months ago, and it freaked us out."

I rested my chin in my hands, contemplating. "Well…honestly, I wasn't even trying to make friends with Natsu in the first place. I just happened to run into him at a farmer's market, we started talking for a bit…and things just went from there. I didn't even catch his name the first time I ran into him."

"Really?" Kairi leaned in, interest gleaming in her expression. "When did you run into him next?"

"Uh…" I wracked my brain in search of the memory. "I think it was…about three days later? He was waiting in front of my house in the morning."

Kairi made a face as she noted, "That's…kinda creepy."

"I was thinking the same thing when that happened," I agreed. "I had no idea how he was able to find me—I didn't give him any information about myself to him, since he didn't either. His being there definitely gave me the creeps, but he told me that he only wanted to tell me his name. He said goodbye right after he did—he didn't even ask for mine."

"So you stopped him," she guessed.

"Well…yeah. It didn't feel right knowing his name while he didn't know mine, you know? So I stopped him and introduced myself, and…I'd asked him to hang out before I realized it. That's how he met you guys."

"That was random."

"Yeah," I giggled. "It was. But you already know that he's a good guy. It's hard to explain, but…I don't know, he looked lonely to me. So I just felt that he needed some people to talk to."

"Whatever the reason, I'm glad you ran into him. Still…" She started to play with a lock of her hair, her gaze unfocused. "I know he's a great guy and all, but…he's always so distant from everybody besides you. Even me, and I'm your best friend. I wonder why."

I couldn't deny that I wanted to know the reason for that, too. He was friendly with everyone, but he didn't spend a whole lot of time talking with them—I was the one that occupied the most of his attention. I'd always wanted to ask him about that for the longest time, but for some reason, I'd been afraid to. There was an air about him that always dissuaded me from asking him personal questions.

"Me too," I admitted, curling into a ball. "It's kind of embarrassing, since we've been going out for several months now, but…I don't know anything about him other than what he told me when we met for the first time. I don't know about his family, other friends if he has any, acquaintances…I don't even know where he lives, because he always shows up at my house first, and he never took me there to visit. He never tells me anything. Sometimes I feel like I'm dating a stranger." I grinned sheepishly. "That's why…if anything, I'm the one jealous of you and Sora. You guys don't have that awkwardness between you since you guys were friends way before you started going out."

"Well, I guess it's different with every relationship, huh?" Kairi sighed resignedly, but she turned and flashed me a reassuring grin. "Don't sweat it too much. I'm sure he'll start opening up once he's ready. We can't exactly push it, can we?"

I smiled half-heartedly at her words. "Yeah…guess you're right," I said.

"Heeeeey! Kairi, Lucy!"

We both looked up to see Sora jogging toward us, holding two popsicle sticks (Sora avoided junk food like the plague). He was by himself, too—I couldn't see Natsu anywhere.

"Sora, what's up?" Kairi asked, getting to her feet. "And where's Natsu?"

Sora looked nervous as I stood up myself, curious as to what he was saying. "He, uh…he left. Wouldn't really explain why; he just said that he had something important to do."

"Natsu left?" I asked in surprise. "Again? Just like that?"

"Yeah…it was weird." He handed me one of the popsicles. "He told me to give this to you and that he'd drop by your place tomorrow. Then he took off before I could say anything back." He frowned. "I don't want to be the devil's advocate here, but I feel like he's hiding something from us."

Kairi smacked him upside the head, making him wince. "Idiot, don't go saying things like that!" she hissed in warning. "It's rude!"

"What?" he protested, rubbing the spot where she whacked with his free hand. "It's true, isn't it? He hardly ever talks about himself, and he never takes off that scarf of his, even in hot weather; he _has _to be hiding something! He wouldn't be acting so secretive all the time if that wasn't the reason!"

"That doesn't matter! You're casting suspicion on him; that's not something a friend would do!" She pulled on his ear, making him yelp in pain. "And you do realize that you're saying all this in front of his _girlfriend?_ Apologize to Lucy right now!"

"No, it's okay, Kairi," I assured her quickly. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure he'll explain it to me tomorrow. Natsu probably has a good reason for doing something like this, anyway. It's not like this is his first time running off like that."

Kairi looked uncertain, but she released Sora from her hold on his ear—who immediately scooted away and covered his ear while flashing a comically fearful expression in her direction. "Well…whatever you say."

"Let's just go home for today," I suggested. "If anything happens tomorrow, I'll give you guys a call, okay?"

They agreed, and we split up and headed for home.

The whole way there, I couldn't help but think about what Sora had said earlier. I didn't think too much of the scarf (it was probably just another weird quirk that he had), but maybe he was right—maybe Natsu _did_ have something he didn't want any of us to know about. That could explain why he never talked about himself, and why he kept excusing himself at random moments.

But he was a genuinely nice person—what could he possibly have to hide from us?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 **

True to his word, Natsu showed up at my house the next day.

He happened to arrive right as my parents and I finished up breakfast and started clearing away the table. The doorbell rang right as I put my plates in the sink.

"I'll get it!" I said quickly, rushing out of the kitchen.

"Is that Natsu again?" I heard my mother wonder aloud as I left. "He seems to have an awful lot of free time."

"Don't be silly, Layla," my father said back to her. "It's summer; kids their age don't know what to do with themselves without school."

I ignored them and answered the door. Natsu was standing right outside, his clothes and hair unusually scruffy, looking abashed.

"Um, sorry," he apologized, his eyes briefly darting in the direction of the kitchen. "Did…did I interrupt your breakfast?"

"No, we just finished," I reassured him. "C'mon in."

He stepped inside wordlessly. He looked listless somehow, even though it was still early, and that worried me a little. I didn't get a chance to ask about it before my parents came into the living room.

"Good morning, Natsu," my mom greeted him with a smile. "Good to see you."

Natsu smiled politely and bowed his head a little like he always did when he greeted adults. "Good morning," he said in return. "I'm sorry for dropping in so early like this."

"Nonsense," my dad said easily. "It's a pleasure to see you children making use of your time. More plans for today, I presume?"

To my surprise, Natsu shook his head in response. He looked solemn as he said, "No, sir; I won't be staying long. I just want to, uh, talk with Lucy about a couple things before I leave."

The cryptic way he worded his statement sent me into a silent yet frantic panic attack. He wasn't planning on leaving this city, was he? Or…could he possibly be here to break up with me? I had to fight the urge to slap myself out of those thoughts. It was crazy; he couldn't be breaking up with me…right?

I shook my head internally to clear away the thoughts. No, that was too outlandish of a possibility. I was letting my paranoia get away from me.

"Well, then; don't let us keep you if you have places to be," my dad said, drifting away to his workroom. "Have a good talk."

"Thank you," he answered gratefully, bowing his head again. Then he turned to me with a surprisingly nervous expression and said, "Let's go to your room, Lucy."

* * *

It was a long time before Natsu actually got around to saying anything.

We did go into my room for privacy purposes, but he just sat in my chair and stared out my window for several minutes. I wanted to interrupt him to get the conversation started, but that nagging feeling that I shouldn't disturb his peace again won out over my impatience.

So I curled up into a ball on top of my bed…and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

"Sorry about yesterday," he said suddenly without taking his eyes away from the window, startling me. "I—I didn't plan on leaving you guys like that. Something came up."

"Oh, uh…i-it's okay," I stammered, trying to regain my bearings. _Wow, this is the first time he's apologized about leaving out of nowhere like that… _"I'm sure you had your reasons."

He finally tore his gaze away from the window to smile at me. "Seriously, Lucy; you're too nice sometimes," he remarked, slight teasing in his tone. "You'd probably forgive me even if I committed a crime against you that landed me in jail."

I let out a weak laughter in defeat. "Yeah, I probably would," I agreed

"You're always asking for trouble."

"Well, ha ha." I leaned over to him inquisitively. "So, what did you want to talk about in the first place?"

His eyes lit up in realization. "Oh…right. Almost forgot about that."

I sighed resignedly. Natsu was prone to memory lapses. If it wasn't so inconvenient, I would find it funnier.

"Actually, it's, um…kind of the reason I left yesterday," he confessed, staring at the floor. "I didn't really have a way of telling you then, since it was on short notice, so, uh…that's why I told Sora to let you know I was coming today."

"Oh, it was?" I said in surprise. "What is it, then?"

"Well…" He scratched his head, clearly uncomfortable. "See, there's this…event going on at South Gate Park tomorrow. It's a 'raise awareness' type of thing. I was just wondering if you, y'know…thought about going there."

"An awareness event?" I was pretty sure I heard about it during the last week of school, but I couldn't remember what the event was for—I never really paid attention to the announcements. "What's the event raising awareness about again?"

"You'll see if you go." He then looked at me imploringly. "So, will you? It'll mean a lot."

Something told me that I'd really hurt his feelings if I turned down the invitation. To be fair, though, I was still trying to absorb the shock of _Natsu_ inviting me to go somewhere. From the day we'd started going out, _I'd_ been the one who had to drag him to places to hang out—and it wasn't an easy job, either. He normally didn't like going out in huge public places, so Natsu asking me to attend what would _definitely_ be a huge public event with him (especially at such a touristy destination like South Gate Park) was something totally out of left-field. I'd been so blindsided by that that I almost forgot to answer him for a moment.

"Uh, sure; no problem," I answered him at last, feeling thoroughly confused. "But what brought all this on? Did something happen?"

"I…I just have this feeling," he replied as he nervously tugged at his scarf, his eyes downcast. "I decided that it was about time that I opened up about myself, and…stopped hiding things from you."

He—wait, what? "W-wait a minute…I mean, that's great to hear and all, but—but why then, of all times? And why at a public awareness event?"

"Because," he said shortly as he rose from the chair and turned to leave, "that's the right place—and the right time."

I had no idea what he was saying. "Natsu—"

"I'll see you then," he said abruptly, his hand on the doorknob. "Don't forget. It's tomorrow, at ten in the morning, okay? If you don't see me when you get there, just go and sit down until the event starts. Don't ask anybody about the event. Don't take any pamphlets or whatever merchandise they'll be selling. And don't wait for me." He turned the knob and pulled the door open, and without turning back to look at me, he added, "You can invite Sora and Kairi to come along with you, if you want…since they're your friends, too. Later, Lucy."

He then left the room and closed the door behind him, leaving me seated on my bed and trying to organize this new torrent of questions in my head.

I really wished that I knew what I was supposed to be feeling right now. I'd never been so confused in my life. But I _did _know that there was no possible way I could get through that event on my own.

I grabbed my phone off of my table and hit Kairi's speed dial.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Kairi was at my house in less than half an hour.

After I'd told her everything that had happened, she said that she'd be right over so we could talk about it in person. She'd even dragged Sora along for the ride, which he didn't appreciate initially—until he also got an earful of my story, after which he also took active interest.

"Man, I always knew something was off about that guy," Sora remarked. "No offense," he tacked on hurriedly after receiving a harsh look from Kairi.

I shook my head. "It's okay," I said as I crossed my arms, feeling unpleasantly puzzled. "He _is_ acting really strange…stranger than usual. He's never invited me to go anywhere before; he's borderline agoraphobic."

"Well, didn't he say something about opening up about himself?" Kairi noted. "Maybe this is his way of telling you that he's more comfortable with you now."

"I guess…but it doesn't make sense why he'd do that at an awareness event, of all things," I said. "Maybe it has something to do with what exactly he wants to tell me, but…"

"Why ask about it now?" Sora grumbled, playing with a stray strand of string off the sleeve of his shirt. "Just go to the park tomorrow and see what he wants from you there. It's the easiest way to find out, isn't it?"

He had a point. We would just worry ourselves into a frenzy about this whole thing without even knowing Natsu's actual motives. But it was hard to keep it out of my head—you just get really paranoid when you're in a relationship and your partner suddenly starts acting oddly.

"I know," I admitted helplessly. "I just can't help but worry that something's wrong."

Kairi placed a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry; I'm sure things are fine," she said reassuringly. "We'll go with you. Natsu said it was fine if you invited us, too, right? If anything happens, we'll be there with you."

I smiled at her gratefully. "Thanks, Kairi," I said. "You're the best."

Sora just rolled his eyes in annoyance.

* * *

Kairi got permission to stay the night at my house so she could easily accompany me on the day of the event. That made this situation a little easier for me to handle. I couldn't thank her enough to sacrificing her own time to make me feel better about this whole thing.

Because honestly, I had no idea what to feel yet.

"Okay, let's recap," Kairi said matter-of-factly some time after Sora had left for home, sitting cross-legged on my bed. "What should we consider about Natsu to get a grip on this situation? I mean, besides being more comfortable with you, there has to be some other reason he's doing this. Any idea what it could be?"

I rested my chin in my hands worriedly. "I don't know for sure," I confessed. "Like I said, he hardly ever talks about himself, like—like he's ashamed or something."

Kairi raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Ashamed of what?"

She really wasn't helping with that in this discussion. I'd told her multiple times already that I_ didn't know._ How was I supposed to guess anything?

I just shrugged helplessly. "I don't know; it's…well, that's mostly why I'm afraid to ask him anything about himself. I'm afraid that if I do, I might—you know, break something."

Kairi frowned. "He seems…fragile to you? Is that what you're saying?"

"…Basically."

This conversation was going nowhere. Kairi seemed to notice that, too, because she decided to change tack.

"Okay, then; let's think more recently," she suggested. "Has he been acting strange lately before today?"

I had to think about this for a bit. No offense to Natsu, but it was hard guessing whether or not if he acted stranger than usual because, well…he always acted strangely—at least compared to everybody else.

"I guess I'd have to say…a little jumpier?" I pondered. "I mean, he's always jumpy, but it's been more and more noticeable lately. He gets nervous every time I ask him if he's okay."

"More than usual?"

"Yeah."

Kairi crossed her arms and furrowed her brow in deep thought. She sat that way for a minute or two before she let out an exasperated huff and flopped backward on my bed. "Geez, I give up. That Natsu's much weirder than I gave him credit for. No offense to you or him."

"Right." I fiddled with my phone, absently flicking from photo to photo I had taken of Natsu and me. As far as I knew, he didn't even have a phone—and if he did, he didn't want to tell me his number for some unfathomable reason. Even I marveled at the fact that our relationship was working at all without a means to really contact him myself. "Still…it's odd how he told me to not do any research on the event that he wants me to go to. Why is he telling me to go into this blind?"

"Who knows," Kairi sighed in annoyance from her sprawled position on my bed. "I guess he just want you to get the message as cleanly as possible…whatever it is." She started playing with a strand of her hair. "Sora was right. Let's just wait until the event starts and then we can go see what the heck's up with him. None of this contemplating is giving us any answers to begin with."

"…Okay. You've got a point."

"Great." Kairi sat up. "Let's get some sleep now. I need to be awake early enough if I want to knock Sora's lazy butt out of bed before noon."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 **

Time passed too quickly.

It had only seemed like a moment before that Natsu had invited me and my friends to this event, but we were now sitting inside Sora's apartment as he struggled to get ready in time—he'd gotten up late, as usual.

In all fairness, we'd gotten up a little later than we'd planned ourselves. If Sora hadn't been going with us, then we probably would've made it in time regardless.

Then again, there was no way Kairi would let him skip out on this.

"Sora, hurry it up!" Kairi shouted into the hallway, her arms crossed impatiently. "We're gonna be late!"

"I _am_ hurrying!" We heard Sora cry out from the bathroom irritably. "Quit rushing me! I didn't even ask to go along with you guys, geez!"

Kairi huffed. "Well, as one of Natsu's friends, you should be obligated to do it! Think of this as a chance to prove your loyalty!"

"I would if I actually understood the guy!" Sora called back as we saw his figure dart into another room in the hall. "Excuse me for not being super eager about this!"

"That's why we're even going to this event in the first place! Quit complaining and speed it up!" She glanced at me in half-apology, half-exasperation. "Sorry about this, Lucy. It was my fault for sleeping in."

"I-it's no problem, really," I reassured her quickly. "You know, Sora doesn't have to come along if he really doesn't want to."

"No, I'm not making him come along just for you," she said with a roll of the eyes. "He needs to get to know people better—seriously, his naivety is gonna bite him in the butt one of these days."

"I heard that!" Sora said accusingly right in front of us, startling us both. His hair was still messy, his white polo and khaki shorts were still rumpled with wrinkles, and his eyes were still slightly baggy from sleepiness, but he looked presentable otherwise…which wasn't very much, if I was being honest with myself.

"Well, good," Kairi said once we both recovered from his sudden appearance. "You needed to hear it. Now let's get going; you can get straightened up in the car."

"You mean I can't even have any breakfast?" he protested. "I'm still hungry, you know!"

"Of course I do, silly. I brought sugar-free snacks with me because I knew this would happen." She rose to her feet and straightened out his messy clothes before giving him a quick peck on the cheek. "C'mon. Time to go and get in the car; it's gonna take us fifteen minutes to get there, and we're already five minutes late."

* * *

The event was nothing like I'd been expecting—I mean, aside from all the people. I thought that there'd be booths and tables and vendors giving out promotion items all around the premises of the park—maybe even a sign telling us what the event was about—but there was just the main building managing the park that had more people trickling in and out than usual (with a distinct lack of children, I noticed). When we went inside and arrived at its small auditorium deeper in, we saw that at least half the seats were still empty, while late vagrants were filling in the other empty spots. It didn't seem like a big event at all, but there were cameramen and film crews around the stage, so it looked like this event was going to be televised. I wasn't sure how widely this would be broadcasted, but this must've been a pretty big deal if the news crew had come out to cover this.

Natsu was nowhere to be seen.

"Seriously, where is he?" I muttered to myself, scanning the crowd of people coming in. "I know he told us not to wait for him, but…"

"See, he probably tricked us or something," Sora grumbled, scratching his messy head of hair. "He made us come out here for nothing."

"That's not true and you know it," Kairi said sharply. "I know you're still sleepy and everything, but don't take your exhaustion out on him. I was the one who dragged you to this, anyway; if you're gonna be mad at somebody, it should be me."

Sora just sighed and looked away. "Okay, fine. I'm sorry." His eyes turned to the stage, and he paused. "Hey, is that…?"

"What?" Kairi asked, following his gaze. I followed suit, and I had to do a double take after seeing the second person on stage speaking to a news reporter.

"That's…that's Natsu, isn't it?!" I observed in shock. "What's he—"

"No way," Sora said in disbelief. "The dude hates large crowds; what the heck is he doing up there?"

"We should go grab some seats and find out," Kairi said quickly. "We don't want to call out to him while he's in front of all these people." She snatched both of our arms and pulled us down the center aisle toward the seats near the front. "Come on!"

"Whoa!" I heard Sora cry out in protest somewhere to my left. "C'mon, Kai; be gentle!"

As she dragged us along to the seats at the front, I just stared up at the stage, where several more people had gone up to speak with Natsu. He didn't seem bothered by the number of people around him, which surprised me. Different sets of people came and went to talk to him, and at one point I saw him hand something to one of the adults who came to him, probably an official for the event. I couldn't tell what it was from this distance.

In a brief moment of respite, Natsu turned his attention to the crowd briefly—and he happened to catch my eye. For some reason, I felt so embarrassed that I wanted to look away from him, but the grin he flashed in my direction held me. The apologetic nature of it confused me.

_He looks…almost sorry about something_, I noticed in surprise. _What is he…?_

I didn't have much time to ponder. Kairi had finally found spare seats in the third row, and she plunked all three of us down, with me and Sora on either side of her. I quickly flicked my gaze upward again—but Natsu's attention had been diverted by another crew member by then. After a moment, he and the crew member moved off the stage and to the first row of seats to our far right. Natsu sat down and, after a couple more words with the man, remained there as the man walked back up to the stage and stopped behind the podium. He tapped on the mike, and the crowd slowly fizzled into silence as the man cleared his throat.

"Good morning, Magnolia!" he called into the mike, and everyone around us cheered half-heartedly. "It's a pleasure to see you here in lovely South Gate Park so early this lovely summer morning! I appreciate the time you folks took off of sleeping in to attend this event!" There was scattered laughter at those words as he continued, "I'm sure most if not all of you are wondering the same thing—just what is this mystery event?"

"What a blowhard," I heard Sora mutter under his breath.

"Quiet!" Kairi hissed.

"Well, we have a very special guest with us here today—I'm sure you saw the young man on stage earlier with some of the officials for this event—and he will be giving you the details on what this is all about. In the meantime, I've been given permission by the young man himself to show a relatively short clip—about five or so minutes long—of what he is here to tell us about today. He'll be filling you in briefly as we get everything ready. I've also been told that the video gets rather graphic, so viewer discretion is advised for any squeamish members of the audience."

_What?_

There was scattered applause and appreciative laughter as the man moved the podium away just as Natsu was getting up and heading to the stage. The two shook hands for a moment when they crossed paths, and Natsu took his spot on the stage, adjusting his headset mike. The crowd went silent as they focused their attention on him. To my surprise, he didn't look out of place up there—it seemed perfectly natural for him to be speaking in front of a large crowd.

"Hey, everyone," he said through the mike, flashing a huge smile and giving a small wave. "Good to see you guys here. The announcer didn't say my name before—he probably forgot it—so it's Natsu Dragneel." Scattered laughter. "Heh, yeah, I know—weird name, huh? I know it is; don't say anything, and don't—hey, hey; I saw that!" He pointed a mocking accusatory finger into the crowd. "Don't look at me like that; I'm not the one who picked that name for me. Shut up."

There was more laughter around us, but I was mostly fixated on how…open he was up there. It was like he was in his element. This was a side of him that I'd never seen before.

Somewhere behind me I could hear a couple girls whisper to each other.

"Wow, he's pretty cute," one said.

"Think he's single?" the other whispered back, and the two dissolved into high-pitched giggles—I did my best to ignore them.

"Okay, anyway," he went on, walking down the length of the stage. "This might sound totally pretentious to you all, but I'm actually the only guest speaker here—because I was the one who asked the city to sponsor this event."

Surprised murmuring started up around the crowd—for good reason. I was surprised myself—_he'd_ set up this event? _When?_

"Geez, what the heck _is_ that guy?" Sora said, sounding peeved.

"Yeah, don't be too impressed. I just gave the mayor some…incentive, I guess you can call it." Spots of hysterical laughter. A random guy called out, "You blackmailed the mayor!"

"H-hey, it wasn't blackmail!" he snapped into the mike in mock anger as he pointed into the crowd again. "All I did was tell him that his car…may or may not be tagged in the morning if he said no. That's it; I swear! No blackmail!" He shook his head in exaggerated shame as he paced on the stage. "Great, there goes my family-friendly image. Anyway—" The crowd roared in laughter. "—to put things simply, I'm here to give you guys my life's story." The crowd _ooh_ed. "Yeah, that's basically all I'm doing. Well, you probably don't care about some random guy's life, but—you know, the more you know, right? That video the guys are setting up is just gonna be a quick summary—I'll be providing the details once the video's over. I know I'm probably sounding really full of myself right now, but trust me; there's a good reason for it, which you'll find out later. Sound good?"

There were small pockets of whoops and hollers at that, to which Natsu said, "Okay, awesome! Oh—and just in time, too; they just got done setting it up! I'm gonna jet for a bit; I'll see you guys in five!"

Cheers and applause followed as the screen at the back of the stage lit up and Natsu hurried backstage.

"What's his deal?" Kairi whispered to me in an aside as he disappeared. "He's crazy good with crowds; why was he lying to us?"

I wish I knew.

The crowd then grew silent as the video began to play in earnest.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 **

I couldn't believe what I had just seen.

As the crew started to put away the screen, I struggled to wrap my head around that the video had shown us. For a second, it didn't seem real—it didn't seem like something somebody like Natsu would show people. It felt like I'd violated some age-old taboo just by having watched that video.

The rest of the audience seemed to share my sentiments. Other than a couple muted whispers and a silent whimper, the crowd was completely quiet as Natsu returned and retook the stage. Somehow, he didn't look quite as cheery as he did before.

"I'm sorry if that bothered anyone," he apologized. "I did my best to keep out the more disturbing parts."

There was scattered gasping and anxious murmuring at his words.

"No way," Sora muttered.

"Is he for real?" Kairi breathed in disbelief, her eyes already red-rimmed with tears. "That—that wasn't even the worst of it?"

I couldn't really muster up enough coherent thought to give a reply back to her. I was too shaken up at what I'd just witnessed.

"Oh my God…" I gasped with my hands over my mouth, in a bid to avoid outright sobbing in public as I stared up at his impossibly straight posture on stage. _How do you do it? How do you stand so tall after all that? _"Oh my God…Natsu…"

"I really don't blame you guys for being surprised," he said. "Most people wouldn't look at me for the first time in their lives and think, _Geez, this guy must've been abused when he was little_, because I probably don't really fit the image to you. I'm wearing perfectly good clothes, I'm not going around trying to kill myself, and I look perfectly undamaged and healthy. But still—" He cleared his throat. "—this stuff is real. And it's going on right now, as I stand here speaking to you guys. And the scariest part is that…you hardly ever realize that it's happening to a person just by looking at them. That's because they want to hide it from other people." He slowly paced to my opposite end of the stage. "We don't want to look weak or pathetic. We want to look capable, strong…and _normal_ to other people. We have this…this drive—this _need_—to belong to the majority. We're terrified of being rejected by society, by people that we're close to. But in the end, all that does is just hurt us." He paused briefly scanned the crowd. "Be honest with me here. Would anybody here just outright tell someone that they're being abused, or—or having some other personal problem, at the drop of a hat? Would anyone here go to somebody for help the minute it all starts?"

There was nervous murmuring rippling through the crowd, but nobody volunteered.

"Of course not. The desire to belong compels you to keep that secret buried, and buried deep. You don't want people to find out about it—what if they find you weird, or pitiful, or outright weird _and_ pathetic? You want to cope with it on your own, just to prove that you can handle that problem by yourself." He laughed derisively—which shocked me, since I'd never seen him do that before. "You know, that just proves how stupid people really are." He gestured to the entire crowd. "Let's think about this for a minute. Who are we proving our capability to, exactly? Is it our family? Is it our friends? The world? Or is it ourselves?" A pause. "And even all that aside—why? _Why_ do we feel the need to prove our worth, when even _we_ don't know why we do it? It's not like it helps us in the long run, right? Sure, we feel ashamed about it, but that doesn't mean that shame is going to kill us off if we admit to it.

And I'll admit right now—I don't know the answer, either. I don't think anybody does, to be honest with you. It's just the way humans were hardwired. We need to feel like we're in control." He paused again, to catch his breath. "But we're hardly in control. That need to be in control itself controls us. We're pathetic, hopeless, and sad creatures, the whole lot of us." He finally cracked a sincere smile at that point—but it looked sad. "And like you saw already…my own dad taught me that the hard way. He beat that realization into me—for nearly ten years."

There were several gasps of shock at those words—mine and Kairi's included. I wasn't sure what Sora's reaction to all that was, but it was easy enough to assume that he was just as surprised as we were.

"Ten years…" I whispered to myself. "Ten years of something like that…Natsu…how are you still…?"

"I'm not the worst case around," he elaborated then. "Believe me, there are people out there, even younger than I am, who have to deal with worse things than I did." His eyes did a quick pass over the audience as he continued, "I was lucky enough to get away from it at all, to start. And I could've escaped sooner if my mother had decided to take me with her." At this point, his voice began breaking. He started to sound bitter—yet another side of him that I'd never seen. "But for some reason or another, she left me behind when she left my father. This woman—my _mother_—left me with my abusive father, taking my younger sister with her to God-knows-where nine years ago. To this day, I have no idea where they are, or if they even still know that I exist. My sister probably doesn't even remember me. They might even think I'm dead, unless they're by some miracle watching all this right now. All I can do is hope that—if they _are_ still around—they're living a good life, away from all that violence."

I wanted to avert my eyes from the stage. I wanted to cover my ears. I didn't want to hear any more of this. I didn't deserve to hear any more—I had no right to be privy to these secrets. No one did. But why did he keep talking? Why did he treat this like it was something everybody should know?

"Now, you might be tempted to call my mom an unfeeling bitch for leaving me with a clearly abusive father," he went on, his words pleading yet his posture so straight and tall, "and clearly, I should agree with you, right? _Why didn't she take me with her? Why did she leave me behind, and only spirit away my only source of realism and comfort? Why did she condemn me into living in hell on earth when she could have just as easily taken me with her, too?_ These are all thoughts you probably think I have." He paused, and sent out a firm gaze over the crowd. "I won't lie to you; I _have_ thought those things before. For a time, I even hated her for making me suffer through nightmares every night. But getting older…well, it didn't make the nightmares go away; I still have them. But…it did open up my world views. I started having these other rationalizing thoughts—maybe she _couldn't_ take me for one reason or another. Maybe it was on short notice, and she hadn't planned on leaving me behind. Maybe she thought that I would grow above all the abuse and put my father in his place." He dismissively waved a hand in defeat. "Whatever the case was, little by little, I stopped blaming her for my problems as I got older. Because, you know…that's just not fair."

It was inconceivable. Someone his age would normally blame the world for his problems. Blame everybody but himself, because he felt that he was the only one in the right, and that the other people of the world were ignorant and stupid. That's what would have been normal.

But I was beginning to see that Natsu was anything but. His hard life had forced him to grow and mature much sooner than a better-off teen his age. Of course, he'd always struck me as mature, especially for a teenager…but I'd never imagined that something like this would be the reason for it.

"But I want to be clear on something," he declared then, his voice the firmest it had been this whole speech, "and that's the matter of whether I forgive her for what she did—or didn't do—or not. And you probably won't like this, but…I don't."

Surprised murmurs rippled through the crowd once again. They—like me—had probably expected him to be mature on this front as well, and forgive his mother for what happened. This was an answer none of us were expecting.

He sighed. "Okay, I can tell just by looking at you guys that you don't agree with me. Let me explain by showing you something that I ultimately decided to cut from the video."

For a second he just stood there, and I wondered what he was planning on doing…then for the first time ever, he pulled off his scarf and exposed his scarred neck.

Even though the scars were healed, they looked grisly. There were multiple straight, horizontal cuts running parallel and across each other across the right side, pink and swollen—like there were huge worms buried beneath his skin. I did my best not to gag in horror as he covered it up again.

"You saw those scars, right?" he confirmed matter-of-factly. "I got them from my dad trying to cut my head off with a hot steak knife when I was eight." Gasps of horror, but he didn't acknowledge them. "It was from another one of his moments of rage. Out of everything that he did to me, that was probably the closest I ever came to actually dying…and I probably hoped I would. I almost tried to end it all myself if only to escape the torture."

"Oh, God…" I heard Kairi gasp next to me. I shared her sentiments—I found it hard to believe that he'd had suicidal thoughts _as a child_. Was that even cognitively possible for a child?

"Tell me something. Would you forgive your mothers if _this_"—he indicated the location of his scars—"is what she let you suffer through as a kid? No matter how I feel about her now, even after all the thinking and contemplating and compromising…how could I forgive a mother who let her son nearly get decapitated as a child? What kind of naïve idiot would forgive his mother for letting him be abused?" He exhaled sharply. "Now don't get me wrong here. I don't hate my mother. Even if I can't forgive her for making me suffer like this…I can't say I hate her, because…I don't know the whole story. It might not even be her fault, and she might have even genuinely felt guilty about what she did. Just like everybody else here, she's just a human being. Flawed and broken, makes mistakes…just like the rest of us. Just as some people can't forgive their loved ones' mistakes, I can't forgive hers. But more importantly than anything else…" His firm expression captured every person's attention. "…No matter what, at the end of the day, she's still my mother, and I still love her. Even if she isn't perfect."

For the first time his whole speech, he looked straight into the overhead camera recording this event, and said these words:

"Mom, Wendy…if on the smallest chance that you're watching this…I hope you guys are doing okay, wherever you are. Mom, I hope we get to meet again someday…and Wendy, I hope you've grown into the kind, loving person that I remember you to be. Your big brother loves you."

The audience gave an overwhelming standing ovation as he bowed in that special way of his to the crowd, and he disappeared off-stage without a word.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 **

It took us nearly twenty minutes to find him afterward.

When we finally found him, he was still backstage, pressed up in the far corner and bracing himself against a wall. I could hear his shuddering and labored breathing all the way across the room, but I don't think he noticed us standing there behind him.

I wasn't sure what to do once I saw him like that. He'd shown a completely different face in front of the crowd, so I hadn't expected this…but in retrospect, it had to have been taxing on him to talk about what he did, much less keep himself composed through it all.

Before I could decide on what I should do at this point, Natsu turned around to face us. He didn't seem surprised to see us here. I saw his face glistening under the indoor lights—he was sweating buckets.

And he just greeted us like he would on any typical day.

"Hey, you guys," he said, smiling slightly. "Thanks for showing up."

A lump formed in my throat at his worn-out tone, and I couldn't take it anymore. Biting my lip, I strode toward him and paused an arm's-length away, looking straight into his eyes—I didn't know what mine looked like, but his were filled with confusion, which soon turned into worry when I kept silent.

"Hey…" I held out a hand like he was trying to comfort me, but kept it hanging awkwardly between us when I still didn't say anything. "Lucy, are…are you okay?"

Anger shot through me sharply the moment he said those words—and how could it not? I couldn't believe how stupid he was—how stupid _both _of us were. How could he keep something like this from me for so long? How could he think that confessing his secret for the whole world to see and hear was a good way to break the news to me? And me—how could I have missed this in all the times we'd spent time together? The signs had all been there from the start; there was no reason why I couldn't have put two and two together sooner.

Natsu seemed to take my silence as anger after another moment, because he finally lowered his hand and said nervously, "Look, I…I know that probably wasn't the best way to go about telling you about all this. I don't really have an excuse, so…if you're mad at me for that, then I don't—"

I silenced him by abruptly pulling him into a tight hug. I buried my face in his chest, not wanting him to see the tears that were now pouring out of my eyes with mirth.

If anything, this gesture only seemed to unnerve him even more.

"L-Lucy, I—" His voice was tense, frantic…almost fearful, like he expected me to hurt him in my supposed fury. "I'm sorry; I—I just—"

Thanks to my newfound knowledge of him, I could easily tell now that he was terrified that I was about to hurt him in some way for disappointing me. I could feel all of his scars underneath his clothes that I hadn't noticed before…and that same wild, desperate air to him that had drawn me to him in the first place was painfully obvious to me now.

Part of me made me want to make him pay his just desserts. I wanted to yell at him for not telling me anything about this sooner, for keeping such important secrets from me, for keeping me from helping him through his burdens. I wanted to hit and slap him for being so incredibly stupid. I wanted to tear away from him and run from the room and wish that he wouldn't come after me.

I wanted to hate him for being so selfish.

…But I couldn't.

"It's okay," I said into his shirt, silencing him once again as I tried in vain to stop my tears. "I don't care; I don't care about any of that—just—just don't ever do this again! I'm always here for you; no matter what, so—promise me that you won't keep these secrets to yourself anymore!" My legs felt like jelly, so I just pressed against him even more to keep my balance. "We're all here for you…you're important to us, so…promise me that, Natsu…" I hiccupped ungracefully. "I'm not mad at you…none of us are…so please…!"

I couldn't see his face, but his body language was enough for me to know what he was thinking. He was still tense, still stuck in his fight-or-flight mode from my sudden advance. His breathing was short and shaky. He was afraid of responding to me. He didn't want to say anything that might make me angry at him again. He still hadn't returned the embrace—and it made my heart throb painfully.

"…She's right, you know."

I'd almost forgotten that Kairi and Sora were here, too. Kairi had finally spoken up—I still didn't have it in me to straighten up, but she sounded much better than when she'd listened to Natsu's words earlier on stage.

"Your background doesn't matter to us," she continued. "What's important is that you're our friend now—so don't feel bad about keeping all that a secret. But next time you have any sort of problem, just let us know. That way, we can help you through it however we can. Okay?"

I could feel Natsu shaking beneath my tight hold on him—shaking in disbelief. "You mean…" he managed to get out. "You guys—you're not…?"

"We never were," Sora came in then. He sounded embarrassed…remorseful, even. "Honestly, though, I should be the one feeling bad. I didn't know that you were dealing with that kind of stuff this whole time, so I always thought you were just really weird, and I…um, might've said some…not-really-nice things about you behind your back, and…yeah." He paused for a minute before he came out with a rushed and awkward, "Sorry."

That apology did the trick. Natsu finally loosened beneath my arms—so much that he would've fallen over if my grip hadn't helped him stay standing.

"You guys…" he said at last, finally breathing normally again. "I really don't know what to say…but you're the best."

Sora chuckled. "Tell us something we don't know."

I heard the shuffling of clothes and a small yelp from Sora—Kairi must've nudged him again. "Geez, have some modesty, you idiot."

"Oh, c'mon; Natsu was the one who said it, not me," Sora complained. "What'd you do that for?"

"It's because he's at least got a shred of humility, unlike a certain somebody I know."

While the two went on to bicker like their usual selves, I felt firm hands on my shoulders, and I acquiesced to Natsu gently pulling away from me. When I looked up at his face, he was wearing a grateful expression.

"I'm sorry for making you worry like that, Lucy," he apologized, more straightforward this time. "And I promise…I won't do that again."

I couldn't help but smile at his earnestness. "Good," I said. "Don't you go forgetting that later, okay?"

"No worries. And actually, about that…" He turned to look at Kairi and Sora in order to catch their attention. "Guys, I've got a bit of a confession to make."

The two immediately stopped their arguing.

"Another one?" Sora asked incredulously before Kairi could shut him up.

"Well…yeah, I guess you can say that," Natsu answered sheepishly, not looking the least bit offended. He never ceased to amaze me. "About everything I said back on the stage—"

"It wasn't a lie, was it?" Sora cried.

"Sora!" Kairi hissed, raising a hand as if to smack him again.

"Wh-whoa, don't hurt him!" Natsu said hastily, waving her down. "I get why he'd think that; really—but that's not what I'm talking about."

Kairi made a face, but she backed away from Sora as she asked, "Then what _are_ you talking about?"

"Like I was saying," Natsu said, "all those things I said up onstage earlier…it's all true, but it's not all of it."

I was confused. What did he mean by that?

"Meaning…?" Kairi pressed.

"Meaning," he finished, "that that wasn't the whole story."

"You mean there's more?!" Sora exclaimed. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

Natsu raised an eyebrow. "Well, I wasn't gonna tell a bunch of strangers _everything_ about myself, you know," he said matter-of-factly. "I only started that event in order to get the big stuff off of my chest—and it was something that needs to get out there, anyway." Then he looked at all three of us expectantly. "So I can tell you more, but that's only if you want me to—I won't force you guys to listen."

After everything that had happened today, I wasn't really sure I even _wanted_ to hear more. From what I'd seen, talking about these things seemed to really drain him both physically and psychologically.

"Are you really okay with that, Natsu?" I asked worriedly. "I mean, it must've been hard to talk about those things onstage to begin with."

Natsu hesitated. "…Yeah, I won't lie…it was pretty hard," he admitted. "But you know…it's easier getting everything off my chest than keeping it all in, and…I did kind of owe you—and I still do, I guess. You've got the right to know."

"Still, you've got the right to your own privacy," Kairi interrupted, looking indignant, "so we won't pry. Only tell us if you're _sure_ you can handle it, so don't force yourself, either."

Natsu was stunned into silence for a minute, and then chuckled once in defeat. "Okay, fine," he relented. "You guys win." He crossed his arms. "In that case, let me make it up to you another way." He turned around and headed for the exit. "Follow me."

"Wait a minute; where're we going?" I asked as we hurried to catch up.

Natsu turned back to us briefly, flashing a smile. "Well, I never did tell you guys where I live, right?" he said. "I'll take you guys there as a compromise."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

I probably should've expected what I saw now that I knew more about Natsu. I mean, it only made sense for me to take things like that into consideration when it came to where he lived.

For some reason, though, I didn't think to assume that he lived at an orphanage. I might've been subconsciously hoping that none of that had actually been real, but…well, I didn't really know.

It was called _Fairy Hills Foster Home and Daycare_, according to the sign that greeted us in huge red letters above the main door. It was a huge marble-brick building, three stories high, and the property was huge—there were several small playground sets in a fenced-off area in the back that we'd passed as we came, so there must been lots of young children staying here.

All of us marveled at the sight of the building.

"Whoa, you live _here_, Natsu?" Sora gawked. "Damn, this place is gigantic!"

"Yeah, it's pretty big," Natsu agreed lightly. "It's much nicer than it looks, trust me."

Kairi finally took a break from gazing at the building in amazement in order to face him in awe. "So you've been here since you were ten? How'd you find this place, anyway?"

"Yeah." He stuck a hand in his pocket. "And I didn't exactly find this place—the police came and took me away from my dad and happened to bring me here to stay. And I didn't ever want to run away from here, 'cause it's a nice place." He scoffed once to himself. "Heh, I was a little devil of a kid. Nobody really liked me here, so I never got sought out by a potential family. All for the better, I think—I really liked staying here. Still do." He turned to all of us in full. "C'mon, let's go inside. I want you to meet somebody."

He led the way to the main door, which opened with the pleasant tinkling of a bell, into a garage-sized main room. There was a wooden door off to the side that had a hand-written label reading MESS HALL hanging on it, and I could hear muffled voices on the other side. Another doorway leading off into what looked like a hallway, and a plain reception counter up front—nobody was manning it at the moment. Worn-out chairs lined the walls, presumably for potential parents to rest and wait while business was being taken care of. The room was very bright, illuminating the salmon-colored walls dotted by random doodles here and there.

It was extremely quiet.

"Umm…is anybody even here?" Sora asked dubiously.

Natsu frowned. "There should be…or maybe he left early today." He cupped his mouth with his hands and called into building, "Hey, Gramps! You here?"

For a moment, there was no answer. Then:

"Ah, Natsu! Finally back, my boy?"

We couldn't tell where the voice was coming from at first, but then we looked down—and saw a dwarf of an old man emerging from behind the counter. He couldn't have been over three feet tall.

"So your little speech finished early?" he asked amiably. "I was watching the whole thing. You really have a way with words when you want to."

Natsu made a face. "Oh, c'mon; that's just mean, Gramps."

"Hardly!" He finally turned to the three of us. "So, are these your friends?"

Natsu dropped the look, but he still sounded somewhat annoyed as he introduced us by gesturing to each of us in turn. "Oh, yeah. That's Sora, and she's Kairi, his girlfriend. And this is Lucy," he tacked on at the end, sounding a bit less irritated. "She's the one I told you about."

"Oh, is that so?" He scrutinized me for a moment before turning to Sora and Kairi. "Well, nice to meet you, kids. I'm the one in charge here, and you can just call me Mr. Dreyar."

"Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Dreyar," Kairi said politely.

Sora nodded in agreement. "Same here, mister."

Mr. Dreyar then turned to Natsu and said, "Natsu, the children should be out on the playground by now. Why don't you introduce your friends to the kids while I clean up, eh?"

"Oh, yeah; sure," he said, finally cheering up. "I'm sure they'll love it."

"Good, good." Mr. Dreyar turned to all of us one more time. "I hope you'll make yourselves at home here," he said. "You're all welcome to visit anytime."

Sora put his hands behind his head with a wide grin. "Thanks, mister!"

Natsu just rolled his eyes and headed to the hallway. "C'mon, you guys."

Kairi and Sora followed after him. I was about to do the same when Mr. Dreyar stopped me with a quick, "Lucy, was it?"

"O-oh, um, yes?" I stammered, turning to him and standing up straighter without realizing it.

His eyes were hard as he said, "Now, I'm sure you know this by now, young lady, but Natsu has had his fair share of baggage from his past that he's yet to deal with, and he's bound to face them sooner or later. Take care to be mindful of him when he does, all right?"

I wasn't really sure what to say to this, but I was going to be doing that without him tell me, in either case. So I just said, "R-right. I will."

The old man smiled in satisfaction. "All right. Run along and join your friends." He turned to the mess hall door and went through it before I could say anything to him.

I simply stood there alone for a moment, trying to sort out my feelings at what had just been said to me. Did Natsu have some other sort of problem that he hadn't told us about yet that Mr. Dreyar was worried about? Would he have stopped me for something that was as small as that, or was it something worse?

I wasn't sure how long I was thinking on that, but I eventually came to when I heard Kairi calling from the hallway, "Hey, Lucy; hurry up! We're all waiting for you!"

"S-sorry! I'm coming!" I shook my head and shoved the thoughts aside for the moment as I hurried to catch up with them. I would just have to wait and see for that time for me to really know what Mr. Dreyar had meant.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

I'd never seen so many kids in one place before. Most of them were preschool to early-elementary-age, but there were a couple who were slightly older hanging out in separate groups. Best guess, they were all anywhere between five and ten years old.

I also noticed that not one of them looked even remotely close to Natsu's age.

"So many kids!" Sora gasped. "Holy crap! You _live_ with them?!"

"Not all of them," Natsu said, light teasing in his tone. "Some of them just stick around for the day until their parents pick them up. Think of this place as an orphanage-slash-daycare."

"Still, that's a lot of mouths to feed," Kairi marveled. "Where does Mr. Dreyar find the time?"

Natsu chuckled. "You're talking to him."

We all did a double take.

"Wait a second…" Sora paused. "You're not the only person who helps out the old man, are you?"

"No, of course not. He's got hired nannies; they're just all part-time." Natsu shrugged. "And since I'm the oldest one staying here, I figured I might as well help out, too. You can never have too many hands for these guys."

Sora's wide eyes stared out at the kids running around like they were sugar-hyped for a good half-minute before turning back to Natsu. "Dude, you have my utmost respect. I wouldn't last even a minute with this horde."

"Noted." He then flashed a sly grin that made all of us nervous. "So, want to get to know them a little better? They _love_ visitors."

Sora blanched. "Oh, no."

"Relax! You're a fun guy; I'm sure they'll love you."

"No, really; I can't—"

Natsu didn't even need to call out to the kids for them to eventually notice us. A little boy spotted us under the overhang, and his grin was exuberant as he yelled, "Big Bro Natsu's back!" and rocketed toward us and tackle-hugged him. The rest of the little kids followed suit, turning the moment into a huge, awkward group hug, while the older ones hung back a little, waving and calling out greetings to him over the laughter and shouting, well away from the mass of kids. It got so big that the rest of us had to back off to give the kids room.

They all bantered back and forth with Natsu like it was the easiest thing in the world.

"Hey, Big Bro, I caught a grasshopper today! It was huge!"

"We saw you on TV during lunch!"

"We had spaghetti and meatballs!"

"I only dropped my fork three times today! It's a new record!"

"Did you bring us any presents?"

"Like books?"

"Yuck, only Ienzo would want something like that!"

"Hey, books aren't yucky! They're fun! They tell better stories than you, Even, because all you talk about are zombies!"

"So what; zombies are cool!"

At this point, Natsu decided to intervene. "Whoa, guys; no fighting," he warned. "If you start a fight, then there's no Movie Night this week! So behave, all right?"

"Awwww!" All the children groaned in unison.

"Besides, we have visitors today," he chided them, proceeding to gesture to us. "My friends are here, so be on your best behavior, got it?"

They all immediately fell silent at the word _visitors_, the lot of them turning to stare at us. Having a whole crowd of kids stare at us in tandem like that was mildly creepy, but the moment didn't last long thanks to Kairi deciding to speak up to fill the silence.

"Hi, guys!" she greeted them warmly, stepping forward and waving in a friendly way. "My name is Kairi, and I'm one of Natsu's friends! And this"—she snatched Sora's arm and pulled him close to her—"is Sora. He's one of Natsu's friends, too—and he's my boyfriend!"

The kids let out a teasing _oooooooh_ at the sound of the word _boyfriend_. A couple girls giggled and blushed. One of the girls stepped forward and asked timidly, "Umm…do you ever kiss him?"

Kairi just grinned mischievously before pulling Sora down to her level and full-on kissing him on the lips. All the kids shrieked, pointed, and laughed at the sight.

Sora couldn't have ever looked more put on the spot than he did at that moment. "Kairi, what're you doing telling them something like that?!" he hissed as he frantically pulled away. "They're kids, you know!"

"So? I bet half of them are more mature than you are ninety percent of the time."

"Was that a shot?!"

"Only if you make it out to be, Sora."

"…Man, how the heck did you end up as my girlfriend?"

"Oh, was _that_ a shot?"

"Only 'cause you started it first."

I tried to calm them down. "Guys, c'mon; no fighting in front of the kids. You're setting a bad example for them."

Natsu chuckled nervously. "Well…no one can really stop them once they get started." He looked at all of the kids. "Guys, be sure to never act like that when you're older, okay?"

Sora apparently heard that over his argument. "Aw, c'mon; not you, too!" he complained.

I had to stifle my giggles. "I think he meant the both of you; not just you, Sora."

Sora pouted. "You guys are mean."

"Anyway…" Natsu looked to me and smiled apologetically. "Hey, don't want to put you on the spot or anything, but can you introduce yourself to them?" He leaned over and whispered, "I'm sorry, but they've been dying to meet you, especially."

What was I supposed to do after hearing _that?_ "Oh…umm…yeah, sure."

These kids must have had superhuman hearing, because a red-haired boy looking about nine or ten piped up, "Hey, Big Bro! Is she the girl you talk about all the time?" before I could even begin to say anything else. My face suddenly felt hot at those words.

_He talks about me to these kids? _I thought to myself, my heart throbbing. _Oh my God…!_

What was even more amazing was Natsu's apparent nonchalance about the whole thing. "Yeah, that's her," he laughed. "Go ahead and say hi. She doesn't bite."

"She's so pretty," I heard a little girl breathe.

The red-haired kid broke away from the crowd of kids, ran up to me, and raised a hand in greeting saying, "Hi, my name's Lea! What's your name, Big Sis?"

_Oh, wow…they're already calling me 'Big Sis'! _I couldn't help but smile at his friendliness. I knelt to his eye level and said, "Nice to meet you, Lea. I'm Lucy."

Lea smiled wide at my introduction. "Nice to meet you, too, Big Sis Lucy!" he said jovially, startling me by giving me a surprise hug.

But it didn't last long. "Thanks," I laughed, returning the gesture. It was too hard to be intimidated by these kids; they were all so open.

Something about all this was bothering me a bit, though—if what these kids were saying was true, and Natsu _did_ frequently talk about me to them, why didn't they know my name yet?

I looked up toward Natsu. He was still smiling, but that trace of sadness from before was back. I straightened up in concern.

"What is it?" I asked, trying to keep my worry from being too obvious. Had he seen through my expression that quickly?

"…Nothing." He paused for a second, but then lightly shook his head and sighed heavily, turning toward the door as he said, "Actually…let's go somewhere a bit more private, Lucy. I need to talk to you about something."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

With the excuse that we were going inside to get away from the sun for a bit (and Natsu sternly telling the children to behave and be good to Kairi and Sora), Natsu and I headed back into the building alone.

He headed down a different hallway from before that was lined with doors, leading the way. I didn't know where we were going, but again—I was too scared to ask him. I was nervous, though—was he mad about something? He was so quiet that it made me wonder if he was.

"Just so you know," I heard him say in front of me without warning, "I'm not mad. So you don't need to worry about that."

I started. "Oh…okay." He could really gauge the mood of the atmosphere if he tried. He was so good at it that sometimes I wondered if he could actually read minds. It was probably one of the biggest reasons—if not _the_ biggest reason—that we were even still together despite this distance between us.

We climbed up a single stairway to the second floor (where there were even more doors), but he didn't stop until we'd reached the end of the hall—and the last door. It looked somewhat more aged than the others we'd passed on the way. I wondered why he'd stopped here.

"This is where I sleep," he revealed before I could even think to ask, opening the door and sparing me a glance as he entered. "Come on in."

* * *

No offense to Natsu (or any teenage boy, really), but his room was much neater than I'd expected it to be. The floor was clear, his table—against the adjacent wall—was tidy save for several drawing tools and a couple sheets of sketch paper, and his bed—against the far corner—was well-made. The only thing messy about the place was the walls, because it was practically wallpapered by sketch papers of differing sizes with various drawings on them—in crayon, chalk, pencil, sketch pen, you name it. I could hardly even tell what the color of the actual wall was.

"Wow," I breathed in spite of the unease I felt. "Natsu, did you draw all these?"

"Most of them," he said as he closed the door behind him. "The ones on the door are just birthday presents from the kids."

"They're amazing," I marveled, scanning all of the pictures on the walls. They got finer and more detailed as I went down the rows upon rows of sketch paper, but save for what was on the door, most of them were of the same drawing that were reworked—a knight in armor fighting a fire-breathing dragon. The details got to the point that he could probably illustrate fantasy novels for a living if he wanted—he definitely had the skills for it. "I had no idea you could draw so well."

"Time to kill and constant practice helped." He moved to his bed and dropped onto it, spread-eagled. "Go ahead and sit down anywhere but the table."

"Oh…okay, thanks." I pulled out his desk chair and sat down meekly. We stayed this way for about a minute or so, completely silent.

Then Natsu said, "So you noticed, out there…that the kids didn't know your name, huh?"

"Y-yeah." I fidgeted uncomfortably. As I'd thought, he'd noticed my expression outside. "How come they don't know my name even though you…talk to them about me all the time?"

He just sighed heavily and placed his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. "I guess…I was scared," he answered at last.

That wasn't the answer I'd been expecting. "…Wait. What?"

"I know this sounds bad, but…I didn't really want to admit to anybody that you were my girlfriend." He turned his head to face me, his own expression nervous. "I kinda felt like…you know, it would be wrong for me to call you that, considering the reason I got interested in you in the first place."

I wasn't a hundred percent sure about what he was saying, but I felt a knot form in my chest, like my heart realized something that my mind didn't. "You…you mean you don't really—"

"No, you've got it all wrong." He went back to staring at the ceiling again. "I do love you—for _you_. I just thought that I didn't really deserve to claim you as my girlfriend because…because of how I felt when I first met you."

"What…what do you mean? What did you feel?"

I saw his eyes tighten with that same frantic light from before—he didn't want to answer this question for fear of making me upset with him. It was a wonder we even hung out together what with all the tenterhooks we were hanging on.

"Well…" He finally raised himself into a sitting position, refusing to make eye contact with me. "…When I first met you…you really reminded me of my sister."

Again, this was an answer I hadn't been expecting. But still—was he serious? I reminded him of his long-lost sister? _That_ was the only reason he'd wanted to hang out with me at all? The implications behind his attraction to me were even worse now that I knew this. It would've been easier for me to forgive him for stalking me simply because I was a teenage girl.

He just grinned resignedly and turned away, staring at the opposite wall. "You're mad, aren't you?"

"No, just…" I had no idea what I was feeling. "…Confused."

"Don't be." He chuckled in defeat. "I know I have problems. This kind of feeling borders on incest…of the pedophiliac variety, specifically."

I couldn't believe I was hearing this. "You were sexually attracted to your own sister?" I asked incredulously, hardly able to acknowledge the words that came out of my own mouth. "And she's _younger_ than you?"

"She should be around twelve now," he agreed. He didn't even try to deny my words. "That puts me at about five years older."

"But…" I tried and failed to wrap my mind around this. "…she should've been five by the time you were brought here, right? You're telling me that you felt this way toward her _before_ that?"

His head was still turned away. "If you really weren't mad before," he said quietly, "then you definitely must be now."

I could feel the pressure building up in my chest. He was right. I _was_ getting mad now—but not because he'd developed incestuous feelings for his just-out-of-infancy sister when he was just a child, or even because he only liked me in the first place because I reminded him of her. I wasn't sure how to feel about either of those things yet.

What I did feel genuinely upset about was that he didn't even try to defend himself and his actions. He just laid himself bare and vulnerable so that anybody could take advantage of him. He let others beat him for his faults and mistakes because he didn't have any other idea on how he should pay for them. I didn't know whether to think that was sad or pitiful.

Either way, I didn't like it.

"You're right," I said, my hands balling into fists on my legs. "I _am_ mad—but it's not because of what you just told me. To be honest with you, that's something I don't know how I should react to right now." That was enough to make him turn around to face me in surprise. "But can't you—can't you even _try_ to defend yourself? You could've said something like 'I never plan on acting on those feelings', or 'It's just the way I am', or—or _something!_" I bolted to my feet in my fit of emotion, startling him so much that he backed himself against the crown of his bed, but I didn't care. "You can't be such a doormat about this! Argue your point! Tell me your story! Help me understand you!" I felt so angry that I could feel my eyes prickling with tears. "Natsu, our relationship won't hold up at this rate. We can't stay together if we don't do something about all this baggage!"

I wanted to say more, so much more, if only he would see where I was coming from—but I couldn't. I didn't know what else to say to get him to understand. I was at an utter loss.

The first words out of his mouth after my bout of yelling were a disbelieving, "You…you still want to stay with me?"

"Of course I do, you idiot!"

"But I—" He hesitated. "—I've been lying to you this whole time. How could you—?"

"No, you haven't." I wiped my errant tears away. "You just said that you love me for me, right?" I asked as firmly as I could. "In all the times I've known you, you've never lied to me. Not once. So I have no reason to think that you are right now." My voice caught, but I did my best to keep going. "Your attraction to your sister and your attraction to me are two different issues. My problem with you isn't that you lie—because you don't. It's that you always hold back the truth!"

Natsu looked absolutely speechless, like he hadn't expected something like this out of me during this conversation. "Lucy—"

"Natsu," I interrupted, cutting him off, "please, you've got to tell me. I have to know if you want our relationship to work." I stepped forward and entreated pleadingly, "I want to help you. So please—don't hide the truth. Tell me everything."

Natsu looked conflicted. He stared down at his now-rumpled blankets and bed sheets, biting his lip and letting his bangs shadow his eyes. I didn't know if it was my imagination or not, but he looked paler than before—and his hands were trembling.

"…Okay," he finally answered, his words unsteady. "Fine…I'll tell you. Everything."

**End of Part One**


	10. Chapter 10

**Part 2: Natsu**

**Chapter 10**

And he did.

Natsu told her everything. He just started talking, and the words started coming out automatically. He told her about his childhood life—what little good he could remember, the bad that he both couldn't and wished he couldn't remember, and every bit of the ugly. He told her about his family; everything he could remember about his mom, his dad, and his sister, he laid out on the table. He told her about the countless times he'd tried to escape—in any way possible—but his dad would always catch him and drag him back. Everything that happened in his first horrible ten years of existence, the finer details of all that he had exposed about himself during that town-sponsored event and more, every single significant growing moment from the next seven years—he let it all out.

He relived each moment. Each moment that he'd cried, each moment that he'd screamed, each moment that he'd bled.

Every single moment that he'd wanted to erase his father from the face of the earth.

Lucy was pale and frozen through all this. Multiple times, Lucy tried to stop him. He didn't listen to her. If she wanted to know everything about him, he said to her, she was _going_ to know everything he could tell her.

Even with that aside, the words wouldn't stop coming, so he just kept talking and talking. He talked for so long that his throat eventually grew sore and his voice became hoarse. By the time he had stopped, it was time for dinner—he heard all the kids' clamoring voices down below as they went to the mess hall.

His own stomach was growling, but he was too tired to go and join them now. He'd dredged up everything that had happened in his life up to now over the last five hours, and his body refused to exert itself any more than he'd already forced it to. He collapsed onto his rickety bed and tried to catch his breath. His eyelids felt extremely heavy and kept threatening to close, but he blinked hard to keep from falling asleep.

Natsu couldn't see Lucy's face from his position, but she was extremely quiet. She hadn't said anything after he'd finished. He just turned to face the wall, his forearm resting against his sweaty forehead, and didn't say anything.

An inordinate amount of time passed before Lucy started talking.

"Natsu…"

He turned his head to look at her—her face was streaked with tears.

"Natsu, I…I'm so sorry…!" Then she started to outright sob. "I—I shouldn't have asked—!"

"I was prepared to tell you from the start." He sighed as he moved his arm away from his face. "So what the heck're you feeling sorry for?"

"W-well—it's because—"

"It doesn't matter," he interrupted her, sitting up. "If you're gonna apologize, then at least do it for something you can take back." He was extra-aware of the burn scars beneath his clothes. "You can't take back words once you say them. It…just doesn't work that way." He closed my eyes briefly before opening them again as he leaned back, bracing himself on his hands. "At the least, I won't show you the worst of what I got from my dad. This is enough for one day…for the both of us."

Things went silent again, but this time it was brief. Hardly a minute went by before Lucy put forth the question.

"Natsu," she began, her words a bit steadier now, "do you ever think about…you know, looking for your mom and sister? To go back to live with them, or, um, at least show them that you're all right?"

He heaved a huge sigh of resignation and stared up at the gray ceiling. "…Yeah, I do. A lot." A lump formed in his throat, and he tried to swallow it. "But I never tried to."

Lucy looked uncomfortable at his response. It looked like she had more things to say, but she wasn't speaking up.

"…Why not?" she finally managed to ask.

"Because—" He hesitated. "Because…I was afraid of succeeding."

Lucy blinked in surprise. "You…you were?"

"Yeah…you have no idea." His chest felt tight as he forced out his next words. "I did want to see my mom and Wendy again. I mean, I still do. I want to see them so badly it hurts me every waking minute. But…I just can't bring myself to try and find them." He tried to keep his next words steady, but it didn't work. They came out shaking. "Because…it's just…what're you supposed to say to someone who abandoned you as a kid? How would that conversation go? How—how would I feel once I see her, right in front me—in the flesh?" His fingers tightened into fists against the sheets, wrinkling the fabric. "I was scared of finding out…I didn't know how I was going to react to seeing her again. So I didn't do anything."

Lucy's only reply was a muted, "…Oh." Then she paused. "Umm…what about your sister, then?"

His heart skipped a beat for a split second at the mention of her. "M-my sister?"

"Yeah…you said that I reminded you of her, so I'm curious." She sounded strange as she said this…sad? Afraid? "How would you feel if she came in through your door right now?"

"I…" It suddenly got harder for him to breathe. "I don't know. It's so hard to picture myself with her again, because—the only way I can imagine myself being with her…it's—it's not right."

"Y-yeah; right…" She pulled her legs up onto the chair and sat in a curled-up position, an embarrassed smile spreading across her face. "Of course…people generally see that as a bad thing, don't they…"

He didn't say anything.

"…You know something…" He looked up in surprise at the sound of her voice. "I've had a bit of time to think about what you just said…and…you're stronger than I first gave you credit for."

He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What're you talking about?"

"Well, I know I gave you a hard time earlier, telling you that you should at least try to stand up for yourself in situations like this, and now I realize…that was a really insensitive thing to say to someone like you." She rested her chin on her knees. "It was rude of me, telling you to be someone who didn't grow up the way you did…because when you were younger…doing that only hurt you, didn't it?"

Without warning, an image of his dad towering over him while holding a glowing knife flashed vividly in his mind for a split second. The memory made him shiver. "Yeah," he murmured. "Not fighting back…the pain would stop quicker than if I had."

"And about your sister…" He froze up again without meaning to. "Admitting your feelings for her to somebody who could easily hate you for it…that…I still don't know if that's wrong or right. But it's amazing to me that you had the courage to say it out loud at all."

Natsu sighed in frustration, a sharp pricking sensation shooting through his chest. "Well, don't feel too amazed," he said tersely. "I really hate that part about myself."

Her eyes grew wide in surprise. "You do?"

"Of course I do. How could I be happy about this?" He drew in a shuddering breath, covering his face with his hands to wipe away the sweat that had collected around his brow and cheeks as he went on fretfully, "I _hate_ feeling this way toward Wendy. It's just so against conventions, completely messed up, and—and just _wrong_. Sometimes I just look at myself, and—and when I'm reminded of how I feel toward her, the same thought always comes up—that I'm a freak that deserves to die."

Lucy gasped at his words, obviously horrified. "That's—you mean—?!"

He chuckled darkly. "Why're you surprised? It's not like it was my first time having those thoughts. You already know that."

She seemed to be at a loss for words. "B-but I—you never told me you _still_ had those kinds of thoughts!" she spluttered. "I thought you—!"

"Got over it? Not even close." He rose from his bed and strode to his desk, ignoring Lucy as he knelt and slid open the upper drawer, revealing the myriad of multicolored bottles carefully lined inside. "Take a good look at this and try saying that again."

He waited for her inevitable reaction to the sight—and sure enough, the color drained from her face once she fully comprehended what lay before her. "Natsu…what—what is all this?"

"What does it look like to you?" he asked.

"You—you can't be serious," she said frantically, anxiously looking back and forth from him to the contents of the drawer. "I can believe one or two, but—_all_ of these?!"

"I can't function normally without them," he said simply. He shut the drawer quietly and straightened up. "You don't want to see me relapse from lack of dosage. Trust me; it's not pretty." He ran a hand through his hair in dissatisfaction. "It's sad, really…I have to rely on synthetic drugs every day to pass as a normal person."

He stayed silent for a while—but then shot Lucy a firm gaze, and it seemed to hold her in place. "Lucy," he said.

"Y-yeah?" she answered nervously.

"I'm only going to warn you once on this." He stared at her for a bit before he felt his expression soften into a sad smile. "I want you to know what you're getting yourself into. If you're still dead-set on staying with me, you're going to have to deal with all this constantly, and it won't be easy. Are you sure you don't want to back out?"

Almost immediately, her muscles seemed to loosen. "That's not even a question, Natsu," she answered with a smile, standing up herself. "There's no way I'm backing out. Back at the park, after hearing your speech, I promised to myself that I'd never let you feel that kind of pain ever again, no matter what. So whether you like it or not, you're stuck with me."

He blinked in surprise, but it passed quickly. He let out a resigned sigh. "I should've known from the start that you'd say that."

She crossed her arms, looking playfully smug. "Well, what'd you expect? Don't you know me well enough by now?"

"I do." He placed a hand behind her head and pulled her in for a surprise peck on the cheek before pulling back, feeling the playful grin on his face as he did so. "I just underestimated how stubborn you really are. I won't be making that mistake again."

"Thanks. And you do that."

All of a sudden, there was a sharp rapping on the door. He heard Lea from the other side calling frantically, "H-hey, Big Bro! Are you in there?! Something really bad happened!"

Natsu immediately broke away from Lucy and yanked open his door—Lea was standing outside, breathing hard and looking terrified.

"What's going on, Lea?" he asked quickly. "What's the matter?"

Lea fought to catch his breath for a moment. Then he said in a panicked voice: "It's one of your friends, Big Bro—he passed out in the mess hall out of nowhere!"

"…'Passed out'?" He was thoroughly confused. "What're you talking—?"

Right then, Kairi rushed in. Her eyes were red from crying.

"Kairi?" Lucy asked in alarm as Kairi flew into her arms without warning. "What's—?"

She answered before either of them could get the question out. "It's—it's Sora—" Her words were barely comprehensible. "I—I don't know what happened—he just passed out—!"

She didn't have to say anything more. Natsu was already out of the room like a shot.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

They eventually found him in the first-floor lounge. He'd been laid on one of the longer couches, and Makarov was standing close by, just finishing up a phone call.

"Gramps!" Natsu dashed up to the old man urgently. "What happened to Sora? I heard he suddenly passed out!"

Makarov put the phone down and sighed, not taking his eyes off of the unconscious Sora. "It's hard to say what happened," he said gruffly, "but he is extremely cold."

Natsu heard the others catching up to him behind him, but he didn't heed them. "Cold?" he asked in trepidation, sparing a quick glance at Sora's sleeping form before returning his attention to the old man before him. "What the hell do you mean by that, Gramps? That doesn't make any sense—it's summer right now, and our AC is turned on low! Why would he get cold like this out of nowhere?"

"Natsu…" Lucy's voice sounded from behind him, but he ignored it. He was too busy waiting for an answer.

"Calm down, boy!" Makarov said sharply, stifling his protests. "I've called the ambulance, and they're on their way here as we speak. We will have our answers soon enough."

Natsu clenched his jaw and his hands tightened into fists. "But—!"

The old man ignored him, and proceeded to turn to Kairi. "Young lady, if I recall correctly, you are his childhood friend, correct?"

Natsu turned on the spot to see her reaction. Kairi looked taken aback amidst the tears, but she managed to nod and respond with, "Y-yeah."

"Did he ever have problems like this before?" he asked her evenly. "Do you know what causes this?"

Kairi looked at a loss. "I—I don't know," she said, her voice quavering. "This is the first time I've ever seen this happen…I have no idea what to…!"

She dissolved into tears, and Lucy responded by pulling her into a tight hug. "Don't worry, Kairi," she said to her softly. "I'm sure Sora will be fine."

Makarov looked disturbed. "I've described the symptoms to the operator, and they don't seem to quite know what this boy's affliction is…it must be something they are not used to dealing with, or perhaps I didn't do a good job of it. In either case, they have instructed us to keep this one warm until the ambulance arrives." Makarov looked directly at the lot of them. "Go grab a spare blanket from the laundry room, my boy," he instructed firmly. "And young lady, contact your friend's parents! Quickly! We can't let his condition worsen!"

* * *

Natsu and the rest of his friends weren't allowed to accompany them on the ambulance. He had protested, but Makarov had refused to move an inch on the matter—he would be the only one to go and meet up with Sora's parents at the hospital. As the only of-age guardian of the building, he had the duty to do so. The rest of them were instructed to keep the children safe and panic-free—and Natsu was to close the orphanage early.

So he and his friends were stuck in the lounge, lamenting over their friend.

"What could've happened?" Lucy asked worriedly, gently rubbing Kairi's shoulder. "He was perfectly fine earlier today…"

"Could be some health problem that he never bothered to tell us about," Natsu said flatly. "Maybe he was afraid of letting us know about it…whatever it is."

"I can't believe him," Kairi cried, bowing her head. "How could he keep something like this a secret from me?"

"Don't be mad at him for that," Natsu retorted a bit more harshly than he'd intended, startling her into silence. "He must've had a good reason for it."

"Natsu," Lucy warned him quietly.

He bit his lip. "Sorry. But we have no right to judge him like that right off the bat. If he wants to tell us, then we'll listen—but we shouldn't force it out of him."

Kairi hesitated. "What if he never does?" she whispered to herself fearfully. "What if he hides it forever?"

"Then that's his choice."

Even Lucy looked shocked at his response. "Natsu—!"

"Don't expect me to sugar-coat this, Lucy," he said before Lucy could go on. "That'll only make things worse."

"But then—"

"You should take Kairi home," Natsu interrupted, rising to his feet. "She's had it hard; she needs time to let this sink in until we get some answers. I need to make sure the kids aren't too freaked about what happened to Sora since Gramps isn't here right now. Once I get the story from him, I'll let you know as soon as I can."

Lucy looked like she wanted to protest, but something in his expression made her back down, albeit reluctantly. "O-okay." She gently urged Kairi to stand up. "Hey, c'mon, Kairi—let's get you home, okay? I'll drive."

Kairi just nodded mutely, and she allowed herself to be led to the front entrance. Natsu followed behind them to see them off.

Once Kairi had been seated in the car, Lucy returned to Natsu for some last words before taking off, handing him a small folded square of notepad paper.

"Take this," she instructed, practically forcing it into the palm of his hand when he didn't acquiesce right away. "You'll need it."

Natsu stared at the folded square of paper in his hand, his eyebrows furrowed. "What is this?"

"It's my number," she answered. "I know you don't have a phone, but I'm sure this building has several landline connections for work—if not, just use a pay phone somewhere. Call me the minute you get the news, and I'll pass it on to Kairi—and then maybe we can go see Sora later if we can." She looked up at him solemnly. "Got that?"

He nodded once in understanding after a pause. "Right…got it."

Lucy smiled in satisfaction. "Good. I'll see you later, then." She reached up to give him a quick goodbye peck on the cheek before walking to the car.

As Lucy's car pulled out into the street and she drove away, Natsu looked up at the sky briefly—the sun was just now starting to set, the sky painted with the slightest shade of orange.

"What a long day," he muttered to himself with a sigh, turning back and heading to the entrance. He'd just turned the _Hello, we're OPEN _sign hanging on the door over so that it read _Sorry, we're CLOSED_ when he heard the unmistakable sound of a car engine entering the driveway. He turned around, expecting to see the ambulance bringing Makarov back, but it was a completely unfamiliar compact car. The windows were tinted, so he couldn't make out who was inside.

"Shoot, what bad timing," he sighed. "This is gonna be awkward."

He was already halfway inside the building when the car parked next to Makarov's minivan, but he didn't have the chance to either step back outside or just go in and ignore them before a familiar voice called out, "Natsu?"

Natsu couldn't stop himself—he turned around, and he was surprised to see that Makarov was stepping out of the passenger's seat.

"Gramps?" he asked in incredulity. "What were you doing in that car?"

"Oh, this kind lady decided to give me a lift home from the emergency room," Makarov answered simply.

Natsu raised an eyebrow. "Do you know each other?"

"Heavens, no. We were strangers up until several minutes ago."

Natsu frowned. "Uh, okay…what about Sora? How's he doing?"

"Much better now. He was awake and talking by the time I left."

"Did the hospital figure out what was wrong with him?"

Makarov nodded in confirmation. "Yes, but I'll tell you more about it tomorrow. This woman went through the trouble of bringing me here in order to speak with you."

His heart skipped a beat. "Wait, what?"

"Yes, that's right," he said absently, waving away the matter as he headed for the building entrance. "Well, I'll be picking up a few things and sending the kids to bed before I leave for the day. You three stay out here and get to know each other, all right?"

Natsu blinked, utterly confused. _Three?_

Makarov was already inside the building before he could ask for clarification, so he had little choice but to sigh exasperatedly, plop down onto the steps, and wait for the people (not _person_, presumably, since Makarov had said _three_) in the car to come out.

* * *

Natsu must've sat there for over half an hour.

It was starting to get dark out now, and Makarov had given him the keys to the building before leaving ("Don't forget to lock up properly, boy"), but there was still no sign of anybody leaving that car.

"This better not be some sort of trick, you old geezer," he grumbled to himself.

Even so, he kept one eye on the car, watching for even the smallest signs of movement or activity. There was none, and it did nothing to help his impatience.

After another minute or so, however, he finally caught something—a young girl's muffled voice, indignant and impatient. He strained to make out the words being spoken.

"Well, fine; then," he heard her state. "I'm going out now."

At last, one of the passenger doors opened, and a small figure stepped out. She was on the opposite side of the car, so he couldn't make out who it was—at least, until she stepped around the car to meet him. Then he just about had a heart attack.

"Hi," the girl greeted him with a smile, like she would a friend. "I'm Wendy. I saw you on TV today. You're my older brother, right?"


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Natsu was struck dumb for countless minutes. He didn't even realize that he'd stood up, staring at the girl standing before him in complete shock.

He finally managed the words, "Wendy…? I-is that really…?"

Wendy stared at him minutely. "You look a lot like Mom," she observed, her words softer now, slightly more apprehensive. "She—she recognized you on TV."

The words were stuck somewhere in Natsu's throat. They wouldn't come out—they were being blocked off by this huge pressure that threatened to cut off his breathing. He couldn't speak.

All he could manage to do was step closer to her, hardly acknowledging her surprised expression, and take in all the details that he could. She was only a couple inches shorter than he was—she had grown well. This height was to be expected out of a twelve-year-old girl. Her long blue hair was thick and bright, tied in small pigtails with white ribbons, and her skin was astonishingly smooth and blemish-free. Her clothing was nice as well; she was sporting a yellow vest over a dark, long-sleeved, marble-patterned shirt with a plaid skirt and white stockings, and she had shiny black shoes on her feet.

Natsu felt his eyes sting with tears. He could see that she _had_ lived well. His mother had taken good care of her. At the moment, that was all that mattered to him. Without even thinking about it, he pulled her into a hug so firm that he might never let go of her.

He heard Wendy nervously stammer, "U-umm…" in nervous confusion at the gesture. Of course; she had to be surprised at this sudden movement. He was still no more than a stranger to her.

But he hardly cared. Now that he was holding her, he felt the dam that had been in his heart all these years start to crack.

"You're so big now, Wendy," he breathed shakily, feeling a rebel tear streak down his cheek. "I'm so glad you're doing okay…I missed you so much…!"

Those words were apparently enough to sway her. He eventually felt her small hands press against his back as she returned the embrace, her whole body beginning to tremble. "Natsu," she whimpered, her fingers tightening against his back. "You…really are my brother, right? It's not a lie?"

"Yeah, it's not a lie," he answered, his voice cracking and his own arms tightening. "I—I really am your brother, Wendy."

Natsu heard her sharp intake of breath at his words. "I'm sorry…" Wendy said at last as she buried her face in his scarf. "I'm so sorry we left you behind…!"

"Don't be silly," he replied, his voice still not quite steady. "That wasn't your fault. You didn't even know who I was when you left. Don't feel bad, okay?"

"B-but," she protested, "Dad—I mean—he did so many horrible things to you! Mom told me that you were dead!"

"It's okay." His throat felt tight again, but he fought it. "I'm just glad that…you didn't have to suffer with me, Wendy. That's what matters." He finally pulled away from her, but he kept her at arm's length—her beauty was unmarred even while she cried, but he couldn't stand seeing her like this any longer. "He's not bothering me anymore. Your big brother is fine now. I'm not dead…I'm right here. So don't cry. Smile for me, okay?"

It took her a minute of sniffing and hiccupping to get the most of her composure back. Then she gave him a teary smile—it was small, and it only lasted for a second, but that was more than enough for him to give her one in response. "That's more like it," he approved.

Wendy smiled at him again, but it quickly melted off her face as she looked away and asked quietly, "Umm…Natsu…are you mad at Mom for leaving you with Dad?"

A knot formed in his stomach at the question. He stared at the asphalt for a moment before giving her an apologetic smile. "Heh…I guess I should've expected that question, huh?" he admitted guiltily.

His words did little to reassure her. "Are you?" she insisted nervously.

"Well—" He hesitated. "Um…yeah. I _am_ mad…but at the same time, I'm not. It's, uh, kind of hard to explain."

"How come?"

He shrugged helplessly. "Not sure how to put it…I'm mad at her for leaving me to that nightmare, but…I'm just happy that she managed to get you away from that, at least…" He chuckled nervously. "…and she raised you so well, too. I don't really know how I feel about her right now, to be honest with you."

Wendy bit her lip. "Do you still love her?"

Natsu's lips twitched up in an involuntary response to that question. He raised a hand and stroked her head once.

"She's my mother, too, Wendy," he answered her gently. "Of course I still love her."

"But…but you just said you were mad at her."

"I am. But the thing is, we're usually the most upset with the people we love the most." He lowered his hand. "So I'm still mad at Mom…but don't get me wrong. I don't hate her. Get what I'm saying?"

Wendy still looked uncertain, but she answered with, "I—I think so."

He grinned in approval. "Good," he said. "Mom's still got a lot of explaining to do, of course." He glanced furtively toward the parked car. "If she ever decides to come out and face me, anyway."

"Mom's scared," Wendy said hurriedly. "That's why she's not coming out."

His heart skipped a beat. "_Scared?_" he repeated in disbelief. "Scared of what?"

"Well…she's scared that you might hate her for leaving you behind with Dad," she said reluctantly, shifting her eyes.

Natsu blinked once, and then he sighed. "That woman, I swear," he grumbled, scratching his head. "Does she think that everything I said on that stage were lies?"

"Natsu, she's our _mom_," Wendy said with a put-upon, almost defensive tone. "She doesn't think that you lied. She's just scared that you might still reject her even after what you said."

Natsu lowered his hand and crossed his arms, chuckling. "Man, it's almost scary how much Lucy reminds me of you two."

Wendy tilted her head in confusion. "Who's Lucy?" she asked.

Natsu smiled wistfully. "My girlfriend."

Immediately Wendy's face flushed as red as a tomato as she covered her mouth. "Girlfriend?" she squeaked through her fingers.

"Hey, that's rude," he chided her, poking her in the cheek in mock offense. "Is it that surprising that your big brother has a girlfriend?"

"Umm…no," she replied meekly.

Natsu raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Really?"

"I'm sorry!" she peeped frantically as she covered her face. "I didn't mean it; I swear!"

"Heh, relax; I'm just messing with you," he laughed, clapping her shoulder. "So? Do you want to meet her?"

Wendy peeked out from between her fingers as her eyes widened in awe. "Can I?"

"Sure you can. I'm sure she'll be glad to meet you, too. But you'll have to wait until tomorrow. Will you?"

Almost immediately, the excited light in her eyes died out. "Tomorrow?" she repeated. "But…" She glanced toward the car. "What about…?"

"I don't care what she decides to do." He looked at her earnestly. "I'm asking _you_."

"I…" He glanced toward the car again and then back to him. "I really want to, but what if she doesn't want to come back tomorrow?"

"She will." He himself stared at the car for a moment before turning back to Wendy. "She said that she wanted to talk to me, didn't she? If she really wants to do that, she'll be back—especially since she can't seem to bring up the nerve to do that right now." He sighed. "Or if you want to be extra-sure…you can stay the night here. Once you ask her permission, I mean, and once I call up the old man. I don't want to kidnap you or anything."

"You can do that?" she asked, seemingly unable to believe him. "Really?"

Natsu smiled. "Well, Lucy told me that I never lie, so…" He lightly stroked her head once. "…Yeah, really."

The rest of his week could've been made with the smile of delight that now spread across her face. "Okay!" she said brightly. "I'll go ask!"

He laughed. "Go for it!"

Natsu watched as she ran up to the driver's window and tapped on it, but he turned away before the windows rolled down and headed into the building to make the call.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

It was surprisingly easy to convince the both of them to let Wendy stay the night. Makarov was totally okay with it; he allowed her to use one of the spare rooms to sleep in and spare pajamas in the laundry room, and informed him that he'd call their mother to let her know that he approved. His mother, for whatever reason, was all-too eager to let her stay—perhaps she was just really anxious to leave.

Natsu stared after the car as it sped away, his eyes tightened in disapproval.

"Natsu?" Wendy tugged on his shirt, catching his attention. "Can we go inside now? It's cold."

He sighed, staring at the street one last time before turning back to her and smiling. "Sure, let's go in. You must be tired, so I'll get everything ready for you."

He turned and led her to and through the main doors—the building was completely silent; they were the only ones awake.

"Um, Natsu?" Wendy asked nervously.

Natsu turned back to look at her. "Yeah? What is it?"

"I…I want talk to you some more," she said quickly, pausing in the middle of the hallway as if she was trying to make her desire clear. "I want to know about everything that happened before and after Mom took me away. There's more to the story, isn't there? You didn't tell the TV people everything?"

He himself paused at her request. His heart twinged painfully, but he managed to keep a straight face as he turned back to her and answered carefully, "Sorry, but not tonight."

Wendy started to protest, "But—"

"Look, I'm sure that you have lots of questions, and I promise—I'll answer them. But it's late now, so let's talk about this tomorrow, okay? I don't think this is a good topic for a late night discussion."

* * *

Natsu was woken by Makarov in the morning with the news that Lucy was on the line for him. He could hardly focus as he trudged downstairs and took the phone call.

"Lucy?" he asked into the phone, stifling a yawn as he did. "What's going on; why're you calling so early?"

"Sorry about that; I just wanted to hear about Sora," she apologized on the other end. "Did Mr. Dreyar tell you what the problem was?"

Natsu sighed. "What was the point of you giving me your number if you were gonna call me first, anyway?"

"For all the other times I want you to call me. So, did he say anything?"

Natsu thought back to last night and shook his head lightly. "Sorry…but lots of things happened last night, so I didn't get a chance to ask. I was going to talk about it with him today, though. Think you can bring Kairi over here by ten? He can give us the story all at once. Plus, there's someone I'd like you to meet."

"Well…I guess I could try," he heard Lucy say on the other end. "Who's this person you want me to meet?"

Natsu just smiled to himself. "You'll have to come and see for yourself," he said lightly.

He heard a put-off sigh on the other end. "It's got something to do with whatever happened last night, doesn't it?"

"I swear; you're too smart for me, Lucy."

"Only 'cause I learned from the best," Lucy teased back lightly. "But okay, I got it. I'll see you at ten!" She hung up.

Natsu set down the receiver and chuckled to himself in anticipation. Then he moved to the hallway to start waking up the kids for breakfast.

* * *

As promised, both Lucy and Kairi showed up at ten-o'-clock sharp, while he was helping to prepare lunch. Kairi was looking much better than yesterday, but still somewhat subdued.

"Are you feeling okay?" Natsu asked as he brought them inside and led them to the lounge.

Kairi just smiled and nodded tentatively. "Yeah…I feel better now. Where's Mr. Dreyar?"

"He's in the mess hall right now," he answered her. "He said that he'd be with us in a couple minutes after making sure the cooks know what they're supposed to be making."

"Oh…okay."

"I know you're probably still worried," Natsu said to her reassuringly. "At the least, I know that he's fine. Gramps told me that he saw him awake before he left the hospital."

Kairi looked slightly happier. "He was?" she asked in relief. "That's good…"

By this time, they'd reached the lounge. Wendy was already there, waiting for him. She looked beyond excited to meet his friends, which was to be expected—he'd told her all about them over breakfast this morning.

Lucy noticed her first. "Oh, hello there," she greeted her with a smile. "Are you new here?"

Wendy's face went bright red with embarrassment. "Um, hi," she squeaked. She didn't seem to be able to say anything more.

Lucy looked to Natsu, questions in her eyes. "Natsu, is this the person you wanted us to meet?" she asked.

Natsu smiled and nodded. "Yeah. This is Wendy."

Natsu had to stifle his laughter when he saw Lucy's flabbergasted reaction. Kairi seemed only mildly confused at Lucy's behavior, which he couldn't blame her for—she had no idea who Wendy was. But Lucy knew, and he had to do his best to avoid laughing.

"No way! This is her?!" Lucy's expression then flicked from shocked to jovial. "Oh, wow; this is so amazing!" She enthusiastically extended a hand to shake. "Hi, Wendy; nice to meet you! I'm Lucy!"

Wendy stared at her outstretched hand for a moment, like she wasn't sure what to do. She then turned to Natsu for guidance, her eyes screaming, _What do I do now?_

"It's okay, Wendy," he said, unable to keep his words from sounding sly. "She won't bite; I promise."

Lucy shot him a dirty look, but Wendy didn't seem nervous anymore. She took Lucy's hand and said quietly, "N-nice to meet you, too, Lucy."

Kairi had a bemused expression during this whole exchange. "Hey, Natsu; mind explaining to me what's going on?" she asked, sounding extremely confused. "Who is this girl?"

"You mean you already forgot what I said back onstage yesterday?" he asked. "Wendy's my sister."

Kairi's jaw dropped. "She's your _sister?!_" she exclaimed. "But I thought—"

"Me, too, but a lot happened last night." He scratched his head. "And now she's here."

"But—how did she even get here? And how'd she find you?"

"Like I said, a lot happened," he sighed, lowering his hand. "Besides, it doesn't matter. You want to know how Sora's doing just like the rest of us, right? Just focus on that for now."

Kairi looked like she wanted to argue, but she just pursed her lips. "O-okay."

"Umm…" Wendy was walking up to Kairi now. "Hello. My brother told me about you. Your name is Kairi, right?"

Kairi didn't say anything in response for a moment, but then she gave her a small smile and said, "Yeah, that's right. Nice to meet you, Wendy."

Wendy smiled happily at her response, but it was quickly replaced with confusion as she turned to Natsu and asked, "Your other friend didn't come with them?"

Natsu felt Kairi stiffen slightly next to him, so he quickly replied with a gentle, "No, he couldn't make it. Something happened yesterday, and he's not feeling too well."

"Oh…" Wendy looked disappointed and worried. "Okay. I hope he feels better soon."

"Well, it appears that everyone is here," Makarov's voice suddenly sounded as he entered the lounge. "Good, good."

Kairi went straight to him and asked desperately, "Mr. Dreyar, is Sora all right? What was wrong with him?"

"He's doing better now, my dear," he assured her. "Don't worry."

Lucy stepped forward, her own brow wrinkled in concern. "So what happened?"

Makarov simply closed his eyes and bowed his head. "Well, as you expected, that was no ordinary fainting spell. It appears that it has happened to him before."

Lucy and Kairi gasped, and Natsu felt his chest tighten. "What does that mean?" he asked apprehensively.

They all waited with bated breath for his answer, but none of them could have expected the answer.

"There's no easy way to break it to you," Makarov said grimly. "Your friend has been keeping a pretty huge secret from all of you. Sora is apparently a diabetic."


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Natsu was just barely the last one to enter the room.

Sora was awake and sitting up in his bed when he came in (Wendy had insisted on joining them). There was a man and a woman standing next to his bed, who must've been his parents. He looked surprised at their sudden appearance, while the woman looked mortified in contrast to the man's resigned look. Kairi was latched onto Sora and was refusing to let go

"You're here, too!" Sora exclaimed in surprise. "But why're you all—?"

"Idiot, why do you think we're here?" Natsu griped breathlessly—he'd chosen to run all the way up to this floor instead of riding in an elevator. "Did you forget that we're your friends? We came to see if you were okay."

"Really?" Sora asked, smiling for the first time since they'd gotten there. "Thanks, that means a lot." He then glanced at Wendy. "This kid your sister?"

"Yeah, I'll explain it all later," Natsu said hastily as he made his way to Sora's bedside and joined everybody else. "Tell us your story first. Why did you keep this a secret from us?"

Natsu saw Sora shoot what looked like a resentful look at his mother before answering, but it had passed too quickly for him to be sure. "Well, it wasn't like I _wanted_ to keep this a secret," he said, all traces of his cheer now gone as he gently pushed Kairi's arms away. "It wasn't exactly my choice. But at least I have an excuse to tell you now."

Sora's mother looked panicked as she tried to protest, "Sora—!"

Sora didn't even let her finish. He glared at her profusely as he said, "Don't you start. I'm telling them everything, and you're not stopping me." He jabbed a finger toward the door to his room, lowering his head and avoiding her gaze. "So get out."

Natsu distinctly heard Lucy and Kairi gasp in shock at Sora's behavior. Wendy clung to him more tightly than before. He himself was wide-eyed in surprise. This was the first time any of them had seen him act blatantly rude to an adult—to his mother, no less. Even stranger was that his father didn't even try to reprimand him for his behavior.

"Dad, I'm sorry, but…I want to tell my friends about this," Sora apologized, his words very controlled as he deliberately avoided his mother's gaze. "Can you please take her home?"

Before his father could say anything, his mother turned on him practically lividly and cried, "Don't you say another word, young man! I won't permit any more weakness from you—keep that to yourself if you know what's good for you!"

"Save it!" Sora snapped harshly, startling everybody in the room save his father. "I don't care what you want me to do! I'm not keeping my whole life a secret from my friends anymore! Nothing good ever came of it for anybody but you!" He gritted his teeth in his anger. "What kind of a parent _are_ you, anyway?! The first thing you do when you come visit me in the hospital after God knows how long you've been gone is making sure that no one found out that I'm a diabetic?!" Sora's fingers were twitching, like he was itching to throw something at her. "You didn't even think to ask if I'm okay! It's almost like you _want_ me to end up like Roxas! The only reason I haven't yet is because of Dad!" His voice cracked at the last word, and he went back to staring down at his sheets. "Well, I've had it with you. I don't care if you lose your precious _perfect mother_ image because of me. Just leave me alone—and stop getting in the way of my life!"

Silence pervaded the room for an eternity once Sora had finished, even long after his mother had been forced out of the room by his father. He appeared to be trying to recompose himself before attempting to address them.

"…Sorry you had to see that." Sora sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I couldn't help it. I just snapped."

Natsu felt his eyes tighten. "No…don't worry about it," he managed, fighting to keep from biting his lip. "I just find that all so…" He couldn't finish the sentence, so he let his shoulders shrug once helplessly. "…I don't even know what to say."

"Don't even bother being polite about her, man. Just say it; it's pretty ridiculous, right?" Sora chuckled once as he continued. "I mean, I'm not as bad as you with the whole _neglectful mom_ issue, but it's still pretty damn stupid. Sometimes I forget that that woman actually gave birth to me."

Natsu could only frown in response. "You're not making any sense."

"Give me a minute; I'll make some in a bit." He glanced at the girls apologetically. "Just so you know, I've got nothing against girls. My mom just really gives me a hard time."

Lucy looked taken aback. "N-no, don't worry about that," she said hurriedly. "No offense taken, Sora; we understand." She turned to both him and Kairi. "Right, guys?"

Natsu didn't say anything, but Kairi did muster up a shaky, "Sora, you said you were going to explain everything, right? What's really going on? And who's Roxas?"

Sora let a surprisingly sad smile show itself as he said, "Yeah, I promise I'll tell you everything. And Roxas…well, he was my twin brother. Fraternal, of course; we didn't look anything alike."

Everyone save Wendy was shocked at the news.

"You're a twin?" Lucy exclaimed.

"You had a brother?" Kairi gasped.

Wendy looked up to Sora timidly, her wide eyes blinking in confusion. "'Was'?" she put out.

"Yeah…he died when he was ten. He was a diabetic before I was."

"W-wait a minute!" Lucy said frantically. "Your brother was a diabetic, too? And—and he _died?_"

"That's right. We were twins, so there was a pretty good chance that since one of us had it, the other one of us would, too. Roxas just happened to bite the dust first."

"Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" Kairi cried, her eyes brighter than usual. "Why didn't you tell me that you had a brother? Or that you both had diabetes?"

"I'm sorry; really," Sora said, sounding almost instinctively defensive. "Believe me; it wasn't my decision to keep all that a secret."

"You mean your mom." Natsu's voice sounded strangely hollow, even to him. "She forced you to stay quiet."

Sora didn't answer, but Natsu could see his expression visibly change at his words.

"What's the deal with that, anyway?" Kairi demanded. "What point was there keeping all that a secret? It didn't do anybody any good in the end!"

"Not like my mom's smart enough to know that," Sora said bitterly. "She's just too obsessed with keeping up this _perfect family _image. When we found out that Roxas was sick, she went ballistic. She was so hard on Roxas, because of a disease that neither of us could help. She was just so dead-set on looking normal to everyone else that Roxas suffered for it." Natsu saw his hands ball into fists that wrinkled his bed sheet as he continued. "She never let him rest, forced him outside all the time, never took him to the hospital, and forced him to eat junk food like nobody's business like a normal kid. I mean, is it any wonder that he kicked the bucket so soon?" Sora's eyes glinted in an odd mix of grief and anger. "I hate her. She basically murdered her own son. My _brother_."

Natsu couldn't say anything. All he could do was stand there, holding Wendy close to him while fighting to maintain a straight face.

Sora then frowned, but he appeared more embarrassed than remorseful. "And you know something else…saying that now, I feel so damn pathetic."

Natsu blinked in surprise. "Say what?"

He raised his head to look at Natsu. "Well, think about it—what happened to you makes my drama look like a walk in the park, and you still said that you loved your mom in spite of everything you had to go through because of her. After you told your story yesterday, I felt like total crap. Listening to you made me see how immature I was being about this whole thing. And even after that…" He shook his head. "…I still can't convince myself that I actually love my mom. Sad, huh?"

Kairi looked pained as she pleaded, "Sora, don't say that! It's not fair comparing yourself to him that way!"

Sora smiled apologetically. "Aw, c'mon; don't be like that," he said. "You're making me feel bad."

"She's right, though," Lucy protested. "Your situations are totally different. You've got no reason to feel bad over that."

"Easy to say, hard to do." He sighed. "Well, anyway. This is a really long story, so I can't tell you all of it in one day. So I'll tell you the rest some other time."

"You sure?" Kairi asked him in concern. "You don't have to keep it in if you don't want to."

"Yeah, I don't, but I'm pretty beat right now." He chuckled. "No offense to you guys or anything, but thinking about how to answer your questions is really taking it out of me."

He did look rather drained. He was paler than usual, and there were bags under his eyes.

"Oh—sorry about that," Lucy apologized quickly. "You should probably rest a bit now, huh?"

"I'd appreciate that."

"Yeah, it's no problem." Lucy turned to face Natsu in inquiry. "It's about time we let him rest; right, Natsu?"

Natsu started out of his thoughts. "Y-yeah." He looked back to Sora one last time. "I guess we'll talk later."

Sora grinned in gratitude and gave them a thumbs-up. "You bet," he agreed. "Promise."


	15. Chapter 15

_Double update this week because I completely forgot to post one last week (I'm so sorry)! I hope you enjoy these chapters!_

**Chapter 15**

Natsu saw his mother's car in the parking lot when they returned from the hospital.

He couldn't help it. He froze on the spot when he caught sight of it—right there on the sidewalk, across from the car.

His friends and his sister were understandably confused at his odd behavior. He felt a hand on his shoulders and heard Lucy's voice ask in confusion, "Hey, what's the matter? Why'd you stop all of a sudden?"

He started at her touch, and he instinctively pushed her hand off of his shoulder (a bit more roughly than he meant to) without looking at her as he answered tersely, "It's nothing."

Wendy's eyes were wide in surprise as she too caught sight of the car. "Hey, Mom's here," she noted. "She's early, too…"

Both Lucy and Kairi appeared shocked at her words.

"Wait a minute, your _mom_ is here?" Kairi repeated incredulously. "Right now? But how—why's she…?"

Lucy looked nervous at the reveal. "Umm…should we just go home for today, then?" she asked uncertainly. "If you want to take care of this alone—"

"No," he interrupted before she could finish, sparing one last glance at the car before striding toward the main doors. "Stay. I want you guys to bear witness to everything that happens in there." He felt his eyes tighten slightly, and his pace quickened. "She's not getting away today. I won't let her."

"Hey, Natsu; wait!" Lucy cried in protest as she tried to catch up to him. He could hear the others in close pursuit, but he didn't slow down for them. He was far too busy focusing on reaching the wide-open main doors.

"She's got hell to pay," he growled under his breath.

*part line*

They found her in the lounge.

She was seated on one of the couches facing the outdoor play area, but she wasn't looking outside—she was too busy staring down at her hands folded in her lap. She looked so deep in thought that she didn't even seem to realize that Natsu and his friends had entered the room.

Natsu felt his throat starting to clog up, but he struggled to push it down as Wendy approached her and caught her attention. Even after seven years, his mother looked just as young as he last remembered her save for some age wrinkles on her face. She'd hardly changed at all.

"Mom, I thought you were coming back at dinner time," Wendy was saying, sounding confused. "Why'd you come so early?"

She didn't answer her, just smiled and rose to her feet. With some apparent reluctance, she raised her head to face Natsu. Natsu himself couldn't get any words out—his voice was refusing to cooperate.

"Natsu," she spoke for the first time—her unexpectedly soft voice making him flinch, "look at you. You've grown so tall."

Her words and tone completely disarmed him. The lump in his throat returned with a vengeance as hot tears rolled down his cheeks. He still couldn't find the words to say.

When he saw his mother approaching him, he abruptly retreated a couple steps and yelled, "Stay away from me!"

She froze where she stood. She looked every bit as nervous as she did pained. But Natsu ignored that. The cracked dam in his heart was starting to burst open in pockets.

"Is this some kind of joke to you?" he demanded, his words uncharacteristically hoarse and derisive. "Huh? Do you think this is some kind of game? You show up for the first time after abandoning me for seven years, and _that's_ the first thing you can think of to say to me?"

Wendy tried to step in and calm him down. "Natsu, don't say things like—!"

"You stay out of this," he said sharply. It was enough to startle her into silence, but Natsu kept his focus on his mother. "Listen up right now, 'cause I'm only saying this once. I only want one thing from you—and that's the _truth_. I don't want excuses or apologies or sob stories. I really couldn't care less about any of that right now." He jabbed a furious finger at her. "If you really did pay attention to what I said on TV that day, then I shouldn't have to repeat myself. So tell me what really happened." His hand clamped into a fist as he lowered it. "And don't you _dare_ sugar-coat anything. Why did you leave me behind? Why did you never come back for me? Where have you been hiding all this time? And what kind of lies were you feeding to Wendy that she thought I was _dead_ for the past seven years?!"

He heard collective gasps from Lucy and Kairi behind him, but he paid them no heed. His mother looked like she could hardly find the words with which she could reply.

"Tell me the truth," he finally said, managing to steady his voice but still glowering hot daggers at her. "The whole truth. Don't leave _anything _out."

And so he stood there, for possibly an extended number of minutes of complete silence, as he waited for his mother to speak.

When she began, she didn't start her story in a way that most people would call conventional.

"You won't believe what I tell you if I don't give you a little bit of background," she'd finally said, "so I'll start by telling you some things that you didn't know about me. It's a long story…so try and make yourself comfortable."

Once everyone was properly settled, she began with a little delve into her own past.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

"Your father and I…we were friends ever since we were children," she began, "and we had always known that we loved each other—we just decided not to establish a relationship until our high school years. During those days, we would always fantasize about getting married, buying a big house, and raising you in a loving family."

This sounded like too much of a fantasy to have been true, but Natsu deigned to give her the benefit of the doubt—he allowed her to continue speaking unopposed.

"And eventually…that part of the dream did come true," his mother went on, smiling blissfully as she lost herself in the memories of days gone by. "We married fresh out of graduating university, acquired a large house through connections, and then…we had you a year after. It was the happiest moment of our lives. Your birth was the culmination of all our dreams."

Natsu had to bite his lip in order to avoid letting out any sort of extreme reaction. However, he did notice that his mother's eyes were glistening with tears now.

"But the way that all went downhill…" She paused. "It was the world's way of striking down the haughty, as they say. Just a month shy of your second birthday…your father was horribly injured in an armed robbery. He'd been trying to stop the people responsible. He was successful, of course, but…" Her voice caught, and her smile wavered. "…his injuries were too severe. He—he didn't make it through the night."

Natsu felt his heart stop for a horrible second at her words—his friends and sister, understandably, didn't catch on quite as quickly.

"That—that can't be right," Natsu managed, his hands balling into fists. "You're telling me that—but he—!"

"It was impossible for me to handle that loss," she confessed. "I couldn't handle being left alone like that—I had no confidence that I could raise you properly without help. I was so desperate for it that I started looking for somebody else. And I did find someone, but…he wasn't too happy about the fact that I'd already had a child with another man. So in order to placate him…I indulged him. We weren't even engaged, but then Wendy came along, and he saw that as a sign of commitment just as good as an official marriage. He started calling me his."

The story was getting more and more difficult for Natsu to listen to—and she hadn't even gotten to his questions yet.

"He moved into your father's and my dream home, and started acting as if he owned the property," his mother went on. "I wanted to put him in his place, but I wanted companionship more than I wanted my dues. So I kept quiet—for three years.

He still didn't like that you weren't his real son, and he constantly pressured me into putting you up for adoption. As much as he terrified me, I refused him every time. You were all I had left to remember your father by, and I couldn't just give you up. It quickly got to the point where…he tried scaring me into it."

Natsu couldn't breathe.

"He treated you so horribly, I felt as if my heart would break," she continued, her voice cracking as she tried to keep herself in check. "But I couldn't do anything to stop him that didn't involve giving you away. I wanted to hold onto you more than I wanted to keep you safe."

"So you didn't do anything," Natsu finally interrupted, his words hoarse. "I suffered like that because you were being selfish, and you figured that having me half-dead was better than not having me at all."

He waited for his mother to deny it, but she said nothing to defend herself. That just made him angrier.

"How could you do that?" he demanded, trying to push down the pain in his throat as he did so. "Do you—do you have _any_ idea what your choice did to me? I still have scars that hurt me. I go into a panic attack if I so much as even look at anything with a sharp edge. I'm so terrified around people I don't know that I constantly have to put up a front every time I go out. And the nightmares…!" He couldn't stop his voice from shaking as he forced himself to continue. "There are nights when I have to cry myself to sleep. I have so many freakin' mental problems that I need to take truckloads of drugs every day just to function properly! And you're telling me that you let this happen out of _love_ for me? Cut the crap and just admit it!" He jumped to his feet as he slashed the air in front of him with his hand. "You did all that because you couldn't let go of Dad! You were running away from your responsibilities! That's not what I'd call love! That's not what a _mother_ should've done!"

Everyone present was stunned into silence. Wendy, predictably, had completely blanched at her mother's story and the truth about her family, and was tearing up. Lucy and Kairi looked equal parts horrified and devastated. Natsu himself could feel tears stinging his eyes once more in his fury, but he paid no attention to them. He kept his focus on his mother, who was now wearing a guilty expression.

"And don't think for a second that I'm letting you off the hook," he asserted as steadily as he could. "You still haven't answered all of my questions. I'm not letting you go until I'm satisfied, and you'd better make it quick—I'd like to finish sometime today because I have a friend waiting for me at the hospital, so don't waste my time. Got that?"

Some time passed before his mother answered him, an oddly wistful smile gracing her face. "Of course," she said softly. "I won't keep you long."

Natsu's chest twinged painfully, but he did his best to hide it. He stayed standing. "So tell me this first—why did you leave me behind, and why didn't you ever come back for me? When the authorities took me away, they told me that they contacted you and told you that I was in their custody after a neighbor reported abuse. And I never heard from you. Why didn't you at least call me and give me an excuse? Were you still scared of him?"

His mother looked down. "They did contact me," she admitted, "and they told me that you'd been removed from the home out of concern for your safety. But they told me that once I got in touch with you, they'd let him know that I was to obtain custody of you—"

"And you didn't want him to know you were still around. You wanted to stay away from him, no matter what."

Again, his mother did nothing to refute him. "I thought leaving you in foster care was best for you. I wasn't ready to face you just yet…I wasn't ready to see what kind of person you'd become because of my mistakes."

"Well, that's one thing you did right," he muttered.

"As for why I left you behind, that's…probably the biggest regret I ever had in my life," she said quietly. "The person helping me to escape couldn't manage more than two people at the time, and I couldn't stand the thought of Wendy being caught in her father's abuse as well. I always meant to go back for you, but…things just kept getting in the way."

Natsu glowered at her. "Like you being a chicken?"

His mother hesitated. "…Y-yes…among other things."

"Figured." He crossed his arms. "Why did you tell Wendy that I was dead? For the same reasons?"

"No," she answered so promptly that Natsu was momentarily caught off-guard. "Your existence was something I just couldn't deny to Wendy. By the time I managed to arrange to get you away from him as well, the person who'd helped me had heard that—in his own words—Wendy's father nearly decapitated you mere weeks after I'd left him. After hearing that, it's amazing that I managed to make it this far." She was shaking her head in denial as she recalled the memory for him. "I genuinely believed that—that he'd killed you. I couldn't forgive myself for leaving you behind…I kept berating myself for not staying behind in your stead. Even after I'd received the call that you'd been safely removed from the home, I couldn't bear to bring up the truth. I was afraid that any hope of you actually being alive and healthy would be dashed if I spoke of it to anyone.

But three days ago, there you were—on the widescreen in front of me, talking about your experiences to millions of people. I thought I was hallucinating. I thought that your ghost was haunting me in punishment, to taunt me. But when I accepted the truth…I couldn't deny the joy I felt. Seeing you alive—seeing you so—so _strong_, even after everything I had inadvertently put you through…it was too much of a blessing—too much of a relief to me."

For all that it was worth, for once, Natsu couldn't find the words to respond with. He stood there numbly, completely dumbfounded.

That was when Wendy finally managed to speak up. "She's right, you know," she said quietly, making him start and turn toward her in surprise. "When she saw you on TV, she called me out to the living room. She pointed at you on the screen and said, 'Look there, Wendy. That's him. That's your big brother! He's still alive!' And then she started crying." She gave him a watery smile. "At first, I thought she was crazy. But…she was right! And I was super happy—because I learned that I have the coolest big brother ever!"

Her words were the ones that finally broke the last levee holding his heart together. For the first time in years, with Lucy right next to him and his family before him, he broke down on the spot and wept profusely, not caring who saw.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

It felt as if evening would never come that day.

But come it did—and Natsu was all-too eager to let Makarov send his mother off when the time finally came. He didn't know how to treat her anymore after hearing her story.

He had cried for all of ten seconds before he'd excused himself to his room to be left alone with his conflicting thoughts. The information had been too much—too much and all at once. He was still reeling even now, many hours after the fact.

As he sat on his bed, he pressed his hand against his neck and felt the long fleshy bumps under the fabric of his scarf as he fought back the painful lump in his throat. What was he supposed to be feeling right now?

A light tapping on the door prompted him to lower his hand and raise his head to stare at his door.

He cleared his throat before asking, "Who is it?"

"It's Lucy." There was a pause. "Can I come in?"

He sighed and brushed his hair out of his face. "…Yeah," he answered. "Go ahead."

The door creaked open, and Lucy's head poked in for a moment before the rest of her followed. She closed the door behind her as silently as possible. She stayed near it, as if she needed a quick means of leaving.

"Umm…are you okay?" she asked, sounding nervous.

He shook his head and scoffed in incredulity. "Honestly…I have no idea." He looked up at her as he spread his hands out in surrender. "I mean, what are you supposed to feel when you find out your entire life was one huge lie?" He stared at the wallpaper of sketches on his left side and bit his lip, trying to find the words. "I—I don't know _what_ I'm supposed to be feeling right now. I'm just so—so confused."

"Well…I won't pretend to know what I'm talking about," Lucy said after a moment of silence. "But while I was listening, I was getting the feeling…that she just wasn't ready to be a parent when you came along. She was probably doing her best with what she had, but she just didn't have enough."

Natsu clicked his tongue in disapproval. "Clearly."

"It was just bad luck."

He scoffed. "Yeah, that _had_ to be it," he muttered. "It was bad luck that my real dad died before I was old enough to remember him, bad luck that my mom knew crap about taking care of a kid andmuch less _herself_, and bad luck that I was abused because of her ineptitude. Clearly this isn't in any way her fault."

"I'm not saying that," Lucy protested. "She does have some fault, but she couldn't help everything. I mean, it's not like she had a hand in your real dad getting—"

Lucy then stopped short and stared at the ground, like she'd said something rude. "S-sorry," she murmured.

"Don't worry about it," he said, his hand moving to his neck again automatically. "It's not like I ever knew him personally." He felt the bumps on his neck betraying the scars underneath his scarf. "Look, I get that you don't want me to be mad at my mom. I really appreciate that and all, but…" He stared at her pointedly, catching her eye. "…I just don't know anymore. Does what she did count as loving me? Can you tell me that, at least?"

He waited for an answer, but it never came. She didn't seem to know what to say, despite being blessed with a very clearly loving mother. Or maybe she did, and she didn't want him to react badly to whatever she was thinking.

Natsu didn't know a mother's love. That was a fact. And any way he looked at it, his mother had neglected him, intentionally or not. That was another fact. And yet, his mother had come back after all this time, even if only to make amends for her past mistakes. Was that love? Or was that—as Natsu himself had claimed earlier—cowardice?

"Natsu," Lucy spoke up at last, prompting him to look at her. She looked more confident now. "Whatever had happened, she loved you—and she still does. The fact that she decided to face you after learning that you were still alive speaks volumes on its own, even if she couldn't manage it the first time. She came back, didn't she?" She moved toward him and sat next to him on his bed, smiling. "She's ready to face the consequences of what she did. All that needs to happen now is for you to respond to her. A mother is only half of the mother-son relationship, after all. Right?"

He was struck dumb at her words. For a while, all he could manage to do was simply stare at her in bewilderment—naturally, this confused her.

"…Um, you okay, Natsu?" Lucy asked him worriedly after what felt like minutes. "You've been staring at me for a while. Blink."

He finally blinked, tears springing from the sting of his dry eyes. "Oh, um, sorry about that." He felt himself slip into a grin as he wiped them away. "You really are too smart for me, Lucy. I should've known you would say something like that."

She nudged him playfully. "What are you talking about; it's common sense."

"For you, maybe. I'm way out of your league."

"Very funny." She squeezed his arm gently. "Still, you get what I'm saying, right? You should give her a chance to make up."

"…Yeah, I'll do that. Just give me some time, all right? I'm no miracle worker. My patience isn't perfect."

"Could've fooled me," Lucy giggled, poking him lightly in the shoulder. "I'm looking forward to seeing Wendy again soon. You hear me?"

He chuckled in defeat and slung his arm over her shoulders to pull her closer to him. "Yeah, yeah; loud and clear, and all that. Get off my case already."

"Pfft, in your dreams." She unwound herself from his arm and pulled away as she said, "Well, I just came in here to cheer you up before taking off. I need to take Kairi back home now; her mom called earlier and she was freaking out."

"That doesn't sound too fun."

"Nope." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek before standing. "I'll get back to you later, okay? Today must've been exhausting for you, so get some rest tonight."

He gave her a thumbs-up. "Yes, ma'am. Drive safe."

She smiled before leaving the room. He waited a moment before stretching and collapsing on his bed. Regardless of his promise, he was going to have a hard time sleeping tonight.

* * *

Just as Natsu was getting into bed for the night, he had an unexpected guest.

He heard the sound of rapping on glass from the first floor, like somebody was trying to get in, so he decided to go out and see who it was (carefully, of course). The constant stream tapping didn't stop the entire way down, and he half-expected to see some sort of idiot burglar trying to break in through the front.

He didn't. He saw Sora there instead.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

At first, he thought it was a trick of the distant streetlights and that it actually was a burglar trying to break in, but then the figure caught sight of him and called his name.

"Natsu, is that you?" Sora's muffled voice came from outside. "Can you let me in?"

Natsu didn't waste his breath with words as he hurried to unlock the door and let him in. The night air blasted into him when he opened it—it was particularly cold tonight.

"Dude, what the heck are you doing here?!" he hissed as he closed the door behind his friend and locked it again. "You're supposed to be in the hospital!"

"I…it's a long story." He looked at Natsu pleadingly. "I'll explain it all tomorrow; I promise. Just let me stay the night. Please?"

Natsu wanted nothing more than to argue and tell him to go right back to the hospital where he should be, but he took another look at Sora and decided against it—the guy was pallid and shivering like crazy, even though he'd somehow changed out of his hospital gown and into regular civilian clothes between leaving the hospital and arriving here, and after what had happened the other day, he didn't feel comfortable putting him through that much stress again.

Natsu sighed resignedly before beckoning him to follow. "You'll have to stay in my room, then—we can't let anybody know you're here." He glared at him pointedly. "You better have a good explanation for this. Running away from the hospital isn't any sort of laughing matter, you know."

Sora hesitated before following. "Y-yeah…sorry."

Natsu didn't answer as he led the way to his room. What on earth had possessed Sora to sneak out of the hospital and run to here of all places?

* * *

"Your mom?"

"Yeah…that's why I couldn't just stick around in the hospital anymore."

Natsu had managed to get the story out of him during breakfast (some of it, anyway—right after explaining to Makarov how Sora had shown up here when he clearly should've been somewhere else). Apparently, his mother had decided something for him against his will.

"Look, I totally understand why you wouldn't want to do that," Natsu said. "That's completely messed up. But still—running away from the hospital? In your case, it might as well be a death sentence—you know you haven't recovered all your strength yet."

"What she's making me do is a death sentence in itself," Sora countered heatedly, leaning forward with his forearms on the cafeteria table. "I mean, not to be insensitive or anything, but you know what it's like, right?"

"Um, yeah; of course I do. But you—"

"Look, just—" Sora looked to him pleadingly. "—just leave my diabetes out of this for a minute, okay? Natsu—what she signed me up for could _kill_ me! Or at the very least, make me even worse! I don't want to be a guinea pig for a bunch of untested drugs!"

"Well, somebody's gotta do it, y'know."

"Dude, that's _not_ funny!"

"…Yeah, that was mean. Sorry." Natsu rested his chin in his hand as he mused, "Man, your mom sounds like a total schizoid. I get that she wants to get rid of your diabetes, but a cure isn't gonna appear just by throwing a bunch of random drugs at it."

Sora blinked and straightened up quizzically. "'Schizoid'?" he repeated.

"Trust me; you'll get a lesson in all the mental disorders when you've got about three at once," Natsu said, rolling his eyes. "See, they're not the easiest to diagnose in a person. Especially if you've got more than one like I do."

"Um…" Sora looked nonplussed. "…Oh."

"Yeah…anyway, on to more important things." Natsu stared at him reprovingly over his now-soggy cereal. "You know that the hospital is gonna put out a search warrant for you since you left without checking out, right? I know you're not that stupid."

Sora stared down at his own (sugar-free wheat grain with soy milk) cereal, looking abashed. "Yeah…I know that. I just…you know, panicked. And my dad told me to make a run for it, too, so—"

Natsu did a double take at his friend's words. "Whoa, wait a minute; your _dad_ told you to run away from the hospital?"

"I had that same reaction," he agreed. "He came back sometime after you guys left and told me everything that my mom was planning, so he told me to try and stay away from her." Sora pursed his lips. "I honestly couldn't help but listen. The look in my dad's eyes scared me more than anything."

Natsu couldn't do anything but shake his head in disbelief. "Wow. Just…man, your mom is messed up."

"Yeah." Sora scratched the back of his neck. "And my dad said that he would try and get to convince her otherwise in the meantime. He told me to find a friend's place to stay at, and, well…you were the closest." He reluctantly raised his gaze, looking sheepish. "Sorry about getting you involved all this, Natsu. Really. I know you already have a million other things to deal with—"

"Forget it."

Sora looked stunned at Natsu's terse interruption. "Huh?"

"I said, _forget it_," Natsu repeated. He shot Sora a hard look. "Seriously. How often do I have to tell you that you're my friend? I don't care what you get me involved in. Forget about it, all right?"

"But—"

"But nothing. Listen up—you're right; I do have a lot of crap to deal with. But about half of that is by choice, so quit sweating it already. It's no big deal."

Sora said nothing for a moment, staring blankly at Natsu until he scoffed and smirked as he shook his head. "Geez. You're unbelievable."

"That's my day job. And you know it."

"Fine; I surrender." Sora then turned his gaze to the ceiling, scratching his head awkwardly. "So, uh…should I tell Kairi about what's going on, or…wh-what do you think I should do?"

Natsu shook his head. "You gotta talk to her," he said. "She's your girlfriend—like, she was your friend since you guys were kids, right? She needs to know about stuff like that. I'm kinda surprised you didn't go and tell her about this first, honestly."

"Well, I really don't know what to tell her," Sora admitted. "I mean, she's already freaking out about me having this disease and stuff, so…I dunno; it's kinda weird being in this position now that she knows about it, since I'm supposed to be the overprotective one and all."

"Believe me; I know the feeling."

"Yeah, I bet."

"Yep." Natsu rose from his seat with his now-empty cereal bowl in hand and headed to the nearest trash bin. "Go and tell her the truth, man. She deserves to know."

Sora also rose in response and followed, tossing his bowl still full of soggy cereal into the bin. "You really think so?"

"Yeah." Natsu turned and clapped his friend on the shoulder. "Tell you what; I'll even go with you, if that makes it any easier."

Sora's eyes lit up. "Seriously? You'd do that?"

"Sure. It's not like I have anything better to do with my time right now."

Sora sighed in very obvious relief. "Thanks, man. You're a lifesaver, seriously."

"Yeah, no problem." He glanced at the clock—the digital clock face over the entrance read 7:58. "Well, we should get out of here—mess hall's gonna close in about two minutes, and they're gonna lock us in otherwise."

Sora stared at him in disbelief. "You're not serious."

"Dead serious. I had that happen to me once after dinner hours when I was, like, twelve. Worst post-abuse trauma ever." Natsu ruffled his own hair and shook his head once as he said, "Anyway, let's get out of here. You've got some talking to do."

"Hold on; what about Lucy? Shouldn't she hear about this, too?"

Natsu turned away and strode toward the door so that Sora wouldn't see his lips curl. "I was just gonna call her."

"You still have her number?" He could hear Sora jog behind to keep pace with him.

"Yeah…somehow I get the feeling that she knew something like this was gonna happen."

**End of Part Two**


	19. Chapter 19

**Part 3: Kairi**

**Chapter 19**

In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have been too lazy today.

For one, I was still in my pajamas—and it was almost noon. Heck, I hadn't even gotten out of bed yet. I couldn't find the motivation to, and the summer heat only added to my lethargy.

Secondly, I had no idea we'd get visitors so unexpectedly. The doorbell rang three times in quick succession and once long—and I could immediately figure out who it was. Only one person I knew rang my doorbell in that random way, which immediately brought questions to my head, but they were coming at me so fast that I had no idea what I was even thinking. All I could think was that Sora was here, even though he definitely shouldn't be.

Finally, Naminé was visiting over the summer, and she was always the first up in the morning (I guess it comes with being a university student?), which meant that she was going to answer the door—and she would see Sora there, which would bring up a whole bunch of complications because she and Sora had a…pretty complicated relationship. I really should've rushed downstairs and gotten to the door before she could (Sora wouldn't mind me being in pajamas this late in the day), but…laziness. So the ensuing drama was mostly my fault.

See, this is _one_ reason I usually go out when hanging out with my friends this summer break.

By the time I'd finally managed to get myself out of bed and down the stairs (messy hair and all), Naminé was just answering the door. Sure enough, Sora seemed to be there—though Natsu and Lucy also seemed to be there with him. Was something going on?

"Oh…hey, Sora," Naminé greeted him politely. I didn't miss the stutter in her voice when she saw him at the door. "And hi, Lucy. Long time no see."

"Yeah, it's been a while," Lucy said amiably. "Visiting over the summer? How's university treating you so far?"

"Yeah…and it's nothing I can't handle. A little stressful, but I manage." She seemed to notice Natsu for the first time at this point. "Hold on, I've seen you before. You were on TV a couple days ago, right? Talked about child abuse?"

"Um, yeah," Natsu answered, sounding uncomfortable. "That's right. And, uh…not to be rude, but…who're you?"

"Oh, sorry; I'm the one being rude. I'm Kairi's older sister, Naminé. I'm visiting for the summer." I heard her laugh softly. "Wow, I had no idea someone like you would turn out to be one of my sister's friends. I'm kind of star-struck right now."

"Hey, Naminé," Sora cut in, either not noticing or purposely ignoring her formality (it wasn't always easy to tell with him), "sorry to drop in unannounced like this, but is Kairi home? I need to talk to her about something."

Naminé's voice faltered slightly here. "Oh—y-yeah, she's home. I—I think she might still be in bed right now, so, um—"

"Wait, wait, wait!" I called out, dashing down the stairs. "I'm up, Naminé; I'm up!"

I rushed to the front door in record time, ignoring everyone staring at me with bewildered expressions, and snapped my head up to glare at Sora lividly.

"Sora," I hissed as I shot a furtive glance in my sister's direction. "What are you _doing_ here? Didn't I tell you to always call first before dropping in?"

That was obviously not what was worrying me the most at the moment (though it was still a big reason), and Sora could immediately tell.

"Hey, I know, and I'm real sorry," he said hastily. "I promise I'll explain why I'm here. I just need to talk to you about something—i-it's actually half the reason I came at all."

I don't know if it was just my being flustered, but Sora seemed a lot more impatient than usual. He looked like he was in a hurry to get away from something—or someone.

I shook my head. "Never mind, just—c'mon in, you guys," I said hurriedly as I ushered them inside. "Naminé, we'll be in the den, okay?"

"Um—"

"C'mon, hurry!" I dragged Sora downstairs to the den, Lucy and Natsu following close behind.

* * *

I sat Sora down on the three-seater couch down in the den and hardly gave him a chance to breathe before I started bearing down on him with questions and reprimands.

"Sora, has your diabetes gone to your head or something?" I snapped, ignoring him flinching back at my assault as I moved around flicking on the dim lights. "I know you weren't supposed to be released from the hospital until the day after tomorrow; what the heck are you doing out so early? Whatever you have to say to me now could have waited until then, you know!"

Natsu tried to wave me down. "Hey, calm down," he insisted. "Listen, Sora's not having any more of an easy time of this than you are. He's got a good reason; trust me on this, okay? Just let him explain himself."

After deliberating for a moment, I just sighed. If Natsu of all people was defending him, then he must have had a pretty good reason. "…Okay, fine. Explain, please."

And he did—after a moment of pause. Once he had finished, I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. I didn't know _what_ to make of what I'd just heard.

Finally I managed to squeak, "You can't be serious!"

Natsu crossed his arms. "He's dead serious, Kairi. Honestly, I freaked out myself when he told me the same thing earlier today."

I felt a huge pressure on my chest as I listened to this. "Why didn't you come to me first, Sora?" I demanded, turning on him. "Shouldn't I have been the first person to know about this? I'm your girlfriend, for crying out loud!"

"Look, I said that I was sorry!" Sora bit his lip and focused on a stack of empty picture frames to his right. "I just wanted to get everything straight first before telling you—and I couldn't exactly drop in on your house in the middle of the night without you biting my head off."

"So you went to Natsu's place instead? And you didn't even bother to call?"

"He was closest!" Sora shot me a sideways glare. "Besides, you wouldn't have answered anyway, even if I did call you."

"Guys!" Lucy finally interrupted, both looking and sounding flustered. "Now's not the time to be arguing about this!" She looked to me pleadingly. "Listen, I know this must really upset you, but Sora really didn't have any other option that that point in time. If he'd gone any longer out in the cold the way he was, he probably wouldn't have lasted long. He was lucky Natsu was even awake that late at night."

Natsu leaned forward and laced his fingers together with a frown on his face. "Yeah," he muttered. "Call it a stroke of good luck."

"And you know how heavy of a sleeper you are," she continued, her words gentler now. "Even if he had called you then, you wouldn't have picked up. That would've just added to his stress even more, so…be a little easy on him, okay? From what I've heard, he's had a rough night."

"Yeah, I chewed him out once already," Natsu said, flicking his gaze up to meet my eyes before looking to Sora. "He gets the point. Don't yell at him."

I flicked my own gaze between the two of them helplessly before focusing on Sora again. His head was lowered, and he was examining his hands intently. He was biting his lip and refusing to say another word.

And I immediately felt horrible. "Sora…I'm so sorry. I only—"

"It's okay."

I started at his sudden interruption. I stood there nervously, in case he was about to explode. But all he said was, "I know I was an idiot. You've got every right to be mad at me for not telling you sooner. Really, I'm sorry." He smiled in that awkward way of his whenever he got embarrassed. "It's just…y'know…like I said earlier…I was scared for myself. I wasn't thinking straight."

I bit my lip and rushed to hug him. He was wedged between Lucy and Natsu, so it was kind of uncomfortable, but I didn't care. Holding him like this with my nightclothes on really emphasized his thinness more than I'd noticed before. I felt bad for yelling at him like that while he was still struggling to even keep himself up and running.

"You idiot," was all that managed to come out of my mouth before I pulled away with my hand still on his shoulders, staring him straight in the eyes. "So what are we supposed to do about this? You're still not a hundred percent yet, and we can't let the hospital find you because they'll alert your mom."

"Uh, actually—he's going to be staying with me for the time being until we get these things sorted out," Natsu announced then, raising a tentative hand. "Sorry, I, uh, forgot to mention that."

I looked to him for a minute in surprise. "He is?" I asked.

"We decided it was the best place," Lucy filled in, prompting me to turn to her. "His mom doesn't know who Natsu is or where he lives, since yesterday was the first and only time the two even saw each other. That'll buy us time to try and think of what we should do."

"Um…okay," I said reluctantly. "I guess you're right." I looked back to Natsu. "Hey, I—I can visit him now and again, right?"

Natsu grinned. "Yeah, of course you can. Last I checked, you're one of my friends, too."

I smiled gratefully at the two of them. I felt so incredibly lucky to be friends with them, even though they both had their own troubles to stress over. Lucy I'd been friends with since forever, but Natsu hadn't been my friend for as long—and he already treated me like one of his own. These two were the absolute best.

"Kairi?"

We all started at the sound of Naminé's voice calling down from above. She sounded…how should I say…mildly irritated.

"What is it?" I called back, trying to hide my surprise.

"Someone is at the door," she answered me, her voice fading—she was heading upstairs. "Can you go answer it? I've got to do something for a bit."


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

Not one of us budged.

"What perfect timing," Natsu grumbled.

"I'm pretty sure that I didn't hear about anyone visiting today," I said nervously.

Take away points for us being extremely paranoid just from learning that there was an unexpected guest at the door if you want, but in our defense, we really did have a reason to feel tense about that. It was probably just the mailman or something; we most likely didn't need to get worked up about it—but it was better safe than sorry.

Lucy fidgeted. "Uh…I don't think we should just leave that person at the door until we actually know who it is," she ventured at last. "Kairi, you should at least check who's at the door."

I'd been so caught up in the moment that I'd forgotten to consider that. "O-oh, yeah…you're right." I half-heartedly turned toward the stairs leading up to the living room. "I'll go see who it is. You guys stay here."

"W-wait a second," Sora cut in quickly, stopping me in my tracks. "What'll you do if—if it's _her?_"

I drew in a deep breath and held it for a moment before releasing it and turning back to face him. He looked really concerned for me, even though it was really _him_ that was in the most danger here. Boys, honestly…

"If that's the case, then…I'll just have to deal," I said at last, trying for a smile. "You know me. I can be a pretty good liar if I want to be."

Sora still didn't look convinced, and I wasn't sure what else I was supposed to say to him to set his mind at ease—because if I was being honest with myself, I didn't have much confidence in being able to turn his mother away from here without looking suspicious—if it _was_ her at my door. Also, I figured that if _Sora_ was able to see through my ruse, I was pretty sure I wouldn't do a very good job of fending off his mother if that happened to be our guest.

Thankfully, that was when Natsu and Lucy stepped in.

"C'mon, buddy," Natsu began with a grin as he gave Sora a light clap on his shoulder. "I'm sure your girl can handle it. Don't you trust her?"

Sora looked disarmed at his words. "Um—well, I—"

"She'll be fine," Lucy reassured him. "None of us will let anything bad happen to you." She flicked a quick glance in my direction before turning her attention back to him. "Especially not her. So try to relax, okay?"

After a moment's hesitation, Sora finally nodded. "Y-yeah. I'll try."

Lucy then nodded at me in assurance that I could go ahead without any worries. I smiled back gratefully before turning back to the stairs and heading up.

It was now or never.

* * *

The smart thing to have done was to actually check the identity of the person outside my door before opening it. Really, it should've been a no-brainer in a situation like this.

But of course I didn't think to do that (it was probably the reason I managed to put two people in the hospital in the span of two minutes), and this whole ploy to turn Sora's mother away from my house was rendered moot once the next four words came echoing out of the stairwell to the den:

"Kairi, just drop it."

To my horror, Sora had come out of the den himself, with Natsu and Lucy close behind.

I could hardly speak at his brazen move. "Sora, you—!"

I was silenced by a silent shake of the head from Natsu. He looked extremely wary, and I had a feeling that Natsu didn't agree with what Sora was trying to do here. Lucy looked really nervous herself—she was biting her lip, and her eyes were darting restlessly between Sora and his mother. Those two definitely weren't looking forward to what was coming next.

Sora's mother gave me a long and hard look before turning her attention to Sora. "Young man, you have a lot of explaining to do," she said in a low voice. "You need to—"

"Yeah, I do have a lot of explaining to do," he cut her off, his words firm as he strode right past me and parked himself right in front of her. "And to be honest, I've been wanting to do that for a really long time. Maybe by some crazy chance, you'll actually shut up and listen to what I have to say for once."

Both Lucy and Natsu looked even more uncomfortable (if that was even possible), and I couldn't exactly blame them. This was exactly the kind of encounter that we'd wanted to avoid, but here we were—because Sora had apparently insisted on coming out and revealing himself.

"First of all, don't you _dare_ start and pin the blame on my friends," he began harshly. "If anything, this entire situation is my fault. I was the one who decided to run away from the hospital, not them. They don't even know the whole story yet."

I felt my chest tighten at those words. He hadn't told us everything? There were still things he kept back? What else could he possibly have to tell us?

"Second, I guess you're really wondering why I did something this crazy," he went on, his voice cracking at the last word. "And I'll tell you why. I did it to get away—to get away from _you_."

I couldn't help but gasp at his words. I could hear Lucy do the same, and I couldn't tell what Natsu's reaction was (he was the closest to Sora and his mom and thus blocked from view), but I was mostly focused on Sora, his glare boring fiercely into the eyes of his apparent tyrant of a mother.

"I'm not going to beat around the bush, Mom," Sora continued. "You have serious problems. You're completely twisted and messed up and sick, and you really need to see a specialist about that." Sora looked increasingly disappointed at his mother. "I mean, you're a _mom_, right? At least realize that you're doing something wrong when your own kid is freaking terrified of you! How the heck am I supposed to make it out there if I'm too scared to let you teach me? Don't you realize what that'll do to me? To _you?_"

She hardly seemed to be able to find the words. "You—!"

"I'm not done!" Sora snapped angrily, shutting her up. "Let me give you a wake-up call—there's no such thing as a perfect family! There never has been! Every family out there has arguments! Every family out there has some kind of dysfunction to them! What makes you think that we can be any different?" He stared down at the linoleum tiling at his feet, like he was collecting his thoughts, before continuing, "You already ruined that image when you practically murdered your very first kid, anyway! If it weren't for you, Roxas would still be here, and Naminé wouldn't hate me so much for being the surviving one!"

I could feel the tears form in my eyes with a prickling sensation—so he'd noticed her actual feelings toward him from the very start. I'd always wanted to know why she'd been so hostile towards Sora for no apparent reason ever since we were young, but now that I knew the truth, it just hurt that much more. I wondered what else about him I'd been taking for granted my entire life as he kept on ranting, not even letting his mother recover from the reeling she'd just taken from his retort.

"This is some kind of ridiculous, isn't it?" Sora asked her, his voice cracking again. "You're being lectured by your own son on how stupid you're being. And you know something?" He turned his head and caught Natsu's eye before looking back to his mother. "My friend over there has things much worse than I do. I know you saw him when he was on TV several days ago. I know you heard everything." He gestured to himself with a helpless spread of his hands. "Look at how I turned out. Natsu went through crap no kid ever deserves to go through, but he's still a bigger guy than me. He can still find it in himself to love his own mom, even though she abandoned him with a sadistic psychopath that wasn't even his real dad." He grasped his own chest in protest. "Shouldn't that have been a red flag? Compared to him, I've gotten the whole royal treatment, and I still can't convince myself that I love you! What kind of sense does that even make?!"

"Sora…" I heard Natsu mutter in disbelief.

"Perfect families aren't real, Mom," Sora repeated fervently, lowering his hand. "It's just the kind of world we live in, you know? No matter how hard you or anybody else tries to deny it, it's the truth! But if you want to get as close to perfect as possible, then love me for who I am! Don't try to make me into someone I can't ever be! We need to try and work our way through our problems, because that's what a family's supposed to do!" He then backed off a couple steps, as if he couldn't stand being so close to her any longer. "Mom, I can't do what you signed me up to do. I won't. I'm not going to be stuffed full of dangerous drugs that'll probably just kill me faster than I'm already dying—frankly, I'd rather die than go through that!"

Uncomfortable silence pervaded the house for a moment. I had no idea what was going to happen next. Natsu, Lucy and I were waiting with bated breath for _something_ to happen. Sora's mother was practically shivering with rage.

"How—" she spluttered in her fury, "How _dare_ you speak that way to—you ungrateful, worthless piece of—!"

Things started happening way too fast. Sora's mother swiftly raised a hand as if to slap him across the face, Sora moved to raise his arms to shield himself, Lucy futilely tried to stop her hand in its tracks, and I tried to pull Sora out of the way of the blow—but none of us were ready for what was the very first movement to register in our minds.

Natsu had suddenly slugged Sora's mother right in the cheekbones hard enough to knock her to the ground.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

Too many things happened at once.

Nobody was fast enough to react to Natsu punching Sora's mother, but the aftermath left us scrambling. I screamed once in shock at the suddenness of the move, I could hear Lucy cry out, "Natsu!" in a panic while pulling him back, and Sora was just stunned speechless at the sight of his unconscious mother sprawled on the floor.

"What the hell—!" Sora snapped his head up and glared lividly at Natsu. "What the hell was that for, you bastard?!"

Natsu didn't say anything to defend himself—he'd immediately crumpled to the floor when Lucy had pulled him away. He was curled in on himself and turned away from us, like he was trying to protect himself from a blow that would never come to him.

"Don't hurt me," he was gasping, recoiling even from Lucy's touch. "Don't hurt me, please—I'm sorry—I'll do anything—leave me alone—I—I don't want to—!" He then broke down into muffled sobbing.

In the fervor of the moment, I'd assumed that he was panicking because he'd literally just socked an adult into unconsciousness with one blow without preemptive, but then I saw how pale his skin was and how slick with sweat his skin seemed to be. His eyes were filled with absolute terror, staring into nothing.

I recognized this. This was PTSD's nasty side kicking in—he was having a flashback. This was the moment I realized that the brunt of his trauma probably went far beyond simple child abuse. I didn't want to think _how_ far, but it was unsettling to see someone who I was so used to seeing level-headed break down into a childlike panic like this. How bad had it been for him to still have panic attacks seven whole years after the fact?

Lucy was doing her best to calm him down, but Natsu wasn't really making it easy for her. I could see the pain on her face as plain as day as she gently rubbed his back and spoke to him softly over his plaintive begging and pleading, as if she was trying to comfort a terrified child.

While she was doing this, I checked on Sora. He still looked ungodly furious, but he seemed to realize what was going on with Natsu, too—he bit his lip and didn't say another word. He raised his head to look at me, and I could see that he was thinking the same thing I was—why was this happening? What had triggered this? None of his mother's aggression had been directed at Natsu, after all.

"Sora," Lucy spoke up suddenly, catching our attention. Her attention was still fixed on Natsu. "Listen, I'm sorry about this. I'll take care of things here. You should go find your dad."

I gasped in spite of myself—what did she just say?

Sora sounded just as flustered as I felt as he protested, "Lucy, you can't—!"

"Just listen!" Her voice trembled slightly. "I'm sure you realize this already, but Natsu didn't hurt your mom on purpose. They're both hurt right now, and somebody needs to make sure they're okay." Lucy finally raised her gaze and stared at us pointedly, her eyes red—she'd been crying. "They need help, so I'll call the ambulance and explain everything that happened here. You focus on finding your dad—you have to go talk to him. I'd go with you, but—I can't leave them here without doing anything!"

"But—" Sora glanced back at his mother briefly. "I can't just—"

"Get out of here already…!"

All three of us flinched in surprise at the sound of Natsu's voice. We hadn't expected him to recover quite so quickly. We immediately turned our attention to him, and he was glaring up at the two of us while cradling his right hand. I tried to avoid focusing on it too much, because I was pretty sure fingers were only supposed to have three joints.

"Natsu, don't move so much!" Lucy protested, trying to wave him down, but he ignored her and kept his focus on Sora.

"Dude, I'm sorry," he apologized, breathing heavily. "Really—you can knock me on the head as many times as you want for this later. I know you're worried, but seriously; just—just go! Find your dad!"

"Kairi, you should go with him," Lucy added quickly, making sure Natsu wasn't moving too much. "Keep him focused. Don't worry—I'll handle things here. I promise."

I bit my lip in hesitation. I turned my attention to Sora again, and I could see him looking increasingly frustrated before turning on the spot and storming out the front door without another word.

"Sora; wait a second!" I cried. Without a second thought, I promptly dashed after him, leaving Lucy alone with Natsu and Sora's mother.

* * *

It took me forever to catch up.

I caught him at the corner of the fifth block, where he'd made a sudden stop. His back was turned to me as I approached and stopped a couple paces behind him.

I was almost afraid to say anything, but I managed a nervous, "S-Sora…?"

He didn't respond right away. It was about a moment later that I saw him brace himself against a telephone pole, his shoulders slumped in defeat.

"I'm lost," he said despondently.

I blinked, suddenly confused. "Wh-what?"

"I'm lost, Kairi." He still didn't turn around, but I heard his voice crack in his breathlessness as he shook his head and said, "I—I don't know where to go."

"Sora—"

"Is there something wrong with me?" He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and finally turned to face me, his expression devastated and eyes red. "Kairi, do you think I'm crazy?"

I felt so incredibly lost that I had no idea what to think. "Sora, why're you asking me this?" I asked nervously. "Why in the world would I think that you're crazy? Of course I don't—"

"You saw me back there," he insisted, stepping closer to me. "I got mad at Natsu for hurting my mom. Is it crazy that I cared that she got hurt?"

I couldn't believe he was asking this. "No, it's not!" I said sharply. "It's only natural you'd feel that way; she's still your mom! Shouldn't that be obvious? What; did you _expect_ to hate her or something?"

Sora drew in a sharp breath at my words and turned his head away, focusing his gaze on the ground. He didn't say anything for a while.

Then he said, "…Yeah. I did."

I froze. "What?"

"You're right. I did expect to hate her." He bit his lip as he shot me a nervous sideways glance before turning his attention back to the pavement again. "I thought I'd be happy when I saw my mom get hurt, because I've wanted to do it since forever for what she did to Roxas…but I wasn't." His shoulders shook. "I got upset. I even yelled at Natsu. I called him a bastard, even though he was freaking out! I probably would've hit him back if he actually meant it!" He raised a hand to his head and grasped a fistful of his hair as he whispered, "I know this should feel normal, but…it doesn't feel that way to me at all. Doesn't that make me crazy at least a little bit?"

I started. I wasn't sure what to say to him. I hated to admit this, but I couldn't relate to what he was feeling—I could hardly even understand what he was saying, to start. What did he even mean; normal didn't feel normal?

Sora must've sensed my confusion (or it had just been really obvious on my face), because he sighed and lowered his hand, staring at me numbly as he began, "I figured you wouldn't understand me. Let me put it another way, then…"

He then approached me and took hold of my shoulders, his eyes boring into mine.

"Kairi," he continued, "do you think I'm lying to myself right now? Do you think that I actually love my mom?"

For a moment, I didn't do anything else other than stare at him. I didn't know what Sora was seeing on my face right now, but it didn't matter. I just kept staring at him until he started looking confused.

Then I smacked him upside the head.


End file.
